THE WOMEN’S INTER-provincial championship and U18 Series both kick off this weekend, meaning the best female rugby players in Ireland will be battling it out over the next three weekends.
Further down the pathway, it has been a huge summer for girls rugby in this country, with more than 1,000 youngsters taking part in the IRFU’s ’Give It A Try’ campaign.
The majority of those girls had never played rugby before and the hope is that the eight-week programme they’ve been part of in recent months will eventually lead to some of them being the inter-provincial and international stars of the future.
Nora Stapleton, the former Ireland out-half who is the women’s and girls rugby development manager for the IRFU, has been driving the programme since its “pilot project” phase last year.
After 13 clubs were involved in the summer of 2017, there was an explosion in interest this year.
“I estimated that we might get 500 kids this year and 20 clubs was the aim,” says Stapleton.
“We got to 38 clubs around the country and we had 1,050 girls playing rugby. It’s been a big success.”
The programme was aimed at girls from the age of 10 to 14, with the IRFU providing a workshop for coaches and club coordinators back in May before the programme began in June.
Starting with something as basic as running forward and passing backwards, the eight-week programme took players through handling and catching, evasion skills, support play and more, with the emphasis on “a fun, enjoyable environment.”
“The plan was that in week four, there would be tackling and by the time you got to week eight you could play a full-contact match, but because of the nice weather we had, the ground was like concrete and it meant we couldn’t do that,” explains Stapleton.
“We did some tackle practice and the kids all got introduced to that but we didn’t go to full-contact.
“We will probably keep it as touch for the matches next year too because it worked so well and I think at that time of year, it gives them that taster. We will still introduce them to tackling but when it comes to matches, we’ll stick with touch.
“The game is more of an offload touch, not the kind of touch people might be used to. When you get a touch, you can still offload the ball to your support player, so it’s encouraging that support play, which is far more like general rugby.”
Around 60% of girls who took part this summer hadn’t been members of a rugby club before, and Stapleton stresses that it was key for the IRFU to bring more of this age grade into the sport, linking the ever-growing girls minis rugby on towards the U14, U16 and U18 grades and into adult women’s rugby.
“It’s about joining up all the age brackets. This is important because either side of it, we’d been seeing the growth already.”
Stapleton has been enthused by the growth of girls rugby in new places, citing the example of Kinsale.
The annual sevens festival in the Cork town is a big deal, of course, but this was Kinsale RFC’s first year catering for girls and they had over 40 players at training many weeks.
“They’re so delighted with it and now they’re trying to figure out what to do coming into the new season,” says Stapleton.
Indeed, that’s the next challenge for the clubs, provinces and IRFU – ensuring a high percentage of these new players stay in the game.
“Some of the girls will go into regular leagues and cups, but for some of the girls it will be about regular participation opportunities in their region – that could be once a month where clubs come together and play a couple of matches.”
In her role with the union, Stapleton has also been busy working on the new action plan for women’s rugby in Ireland, with the IRFU set to release the much-anticipated strategy in September.
“How do we get more girls playing, how do we give them more opportunities to play?” says Stapleton of what she’s been working on. “A lot of people have said they’d like to play more but they don’t get the chance to, so that’s something we want to fix.”
The plan for ‘Give It a Try’ next summer is to have a similar number of clubs involved and to ensure that players attend as many of the eight training sessions as possible, rather than dipping in and out across the two months.
But two years in, Stapleton is pleased with what the programme has achieved and how it has opened people’s eyes.
“For some of the clubs who were doing this for the first time, they’ve often been shocked at the ability of the girls, how they’re able to adapt and get stuck in,” says Stapleton.
“With some of the tries they’ve scored or their evasion skills, it’s really nice to see how excited the coaches on the sideline are getting. We’ve heard them saying, ‘God, I didn’t know girls of this age could do that.’
“That’s what it’s all about and there’s so much talent out there. 10 to 14 is the age where lots of girls stop playing sport, so if we can keep them active through rugby, that’s a huge achievement.”
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Cork are so bad, Lord
Clare to win the all ireland
Is it tidy towns you are on about.
Wolf , donal og cusack was not wrong when he showed the Graf on the Sunday game last year of where cork hurling is at the moment , that was atrocious from a county that has been so resoundingly competitive for years , as we always said in tipp a good year was the hay saved and cork bet , not the case anymore unfortunately from a tipp this sad to see as it is not good for the sport in general
7 points down with 10 mins to go and they’re STILL using a sweeper what are the management thinking!?
Terrible decision to use a sweeper for all the game
The tactic seems to have been to concentrate on keeping the Tipp margin of victory as low as possible..
That way the Cork public might not turn against the County Board.
It’s all about self preservation.
As a Galway man I’m worried how that cork team beat us in the relegation decider.
Not looking good when it looks like Kerry can outplay Cork in both codes.
That was the worst Cork team, led by the worst Cork management in living memory. Not help by having the worst County Board in Ireland.
It’s grand. Frank Murphy et al will have their legacy with the new stadium and that’s what really matters.
Absolutely sickening stuff….
Probably call it ‘Murphy Park!
Cork were terrible, Couldn’t even pass the ball to each other and hit numerous aimless balls down the park.Tipp won the majority of 50/50s and dominated all the scuffles on the park. There’s a long road ahead for Cork hurling as this group of players are not be up to the standard required.
Worst cork performance in my living memory nit one player would get on the the team of 10 years ago
How did we get so bad?
When you depend on decent guys from junior and intermediate clubs your in big trouble the senior clubs in Cork are of such poor standard it’s amazing we can even limit Tipp to 9 points. The upside is we will have a New state of the art stadium for other Munster counties to play in come championship time and we will have plenty stewards . In serious grief at seeing this latest capitulation and no sign of any light for the road ahead
Ye are on a par with Wexford I’m afraid.
On way down in train, Cork have become the “kerry” of Munster hurling
From a Tipp fan – it was a poor match overall. Both teams will have not learned much from today. Limerick will be a different story! !
When you set up your side for damage limitation that is all you will achieve, the sweeper system has hurling destroyed.The 2013 championship was one of the best in living memory but it seems like a lifetime ago now! I can only hope that Limerick will go 15 on 15 in the semi-final and play their natural gung ho shit or bust style because if they don’t another woeful game will drift by.
The sweeper can still be played in a positive and entertaining way but it requires far more tactically than simply pulling a man back. When you play a sweeper you also play against a sweeper, teams need to execute both defensive and offensive sides of the formation. Look at Clare for example, defensively they press hard when not in possession and crowd midfield forcing teams to play long balls up to where they have an extra man who now has more time to get into position to cover. Then in attack they utilise rapid short passing to work the ball past midfield so they can play long forward passes that bypass the sweeper. It can be done well and still be entertaining but the likes of Cork and Limerick are now trying it without any idea of how to play the system and producing dour matches
Is Frank there for life? Is it like being pope?
Frank does what he wants and NO ONE dares question him.
Patrick Horgan with yet another game of no scores from play!
Shocking.. what were they thinking with the sweeper system ??? A draw ???? Short summer ahead..
Cork should enter the Christy ring
Hello Cork, hello Cork, where are ye.?????
Cork were abysmal today it is sad to see how far they have gone back the game needs a competitive cork side
These players have worked as hard as previous teams and the management have worked as hard as previous managers.We are at the low end of the cycle.The wheel will turn in time but let’s not be personally offensive to players or managers and selectors
Your right… I don’t blame the players, management or selectors…
I blame the county board and more importantly the man who has been running it for over 40 years…
William my comment may have came across wrong. I didn’t mean to have a go at Egan or anyone in particular. I just found d whole game v frustrating. Cork are better than that.
I see the blaming of poor auld frank has started as usual…only one thing for it then I suppose another strike
Why on earth would cork change their tactics to one they have never used and try it in their championship opener against Tipp of all teams aswell
Roll on kilkenny to sort them out
It’s all well and good using a sweeper if they know what they doin. Egan was standing there with not a clue what he was supposed to b at. He may as well been up in d stand.
Hope they don’t become as bad as the Kilkenny footballers
On the ball William…We are in a transition with plenty of challenges ahead. This is the right back room crew to get things turned around.
I love your optimism
I took the m
Jesus, are there any hurlers left in Cork?
Can’t believe how much cork hurling has declined this year. Yesterday showed that they’ve no leadership on the pitch and no plans other than using a sweeping system no matter what. JBM was restricted during his time in charge by the power that be (frank murphy) Also the last players strike certainly accomplished nothing but contribute to the demise of cork hurling. It’s a shame, there’s some great young hurlers all over cork county.