Community

We believe in the women’s game and always strive to support the development of women’s and girl’s rugby in our community and beyond.

Please contact us to discuss any of our community initiatives.

Supporting Women’s & Girls Rugby

Our door is always open and we are delighted to engage with those who share our beliefs. 

This includes: 

• Opportunities to observe at our adult training sessions and exchange ideas with our coaching team
• Irish player visits to your age-grade training session, prize giving events or a zoom Q&A with your team
• Signed Ireland or provincial jerseys for prizes, club raffles, tours or auctions, whatever the club chooses
• Bring your age-grade team to a senior game, learn about the players training & playing schedule, their rugby journey, have pizza, meet the players afterwards to chat and get Ireland jerseys signed
• If you are looking to start women’s rugby in your club, we’re happy to share our experiences, plans, documents, what worked and what didn’t, and help in any way we can

Player Pathway

We run an adult performance rugby program, with two teams and approximately 58/62 athletes in our program in any one season.  The total number in the program is dependent on the international commitments of the total squad.  The goals of our adult program is to allow our players to become the best they can be, perform at the highest level in Ireland, and to produce Ireland 15s and 7s internationals.  

Athletes in our adult program generally come from our age-grade teams, are crossover athletes who take up the sport in adulthood, or join us from other clubs to play performance rugby.  This is often athletes graduating from age-grade rugby who have the ambition and interest to partake in a performance program.

Our Futures Program is an accelerator program, similar to our adult program, for athletes aged 14 to 18 with ambitions to play AIL, representative or professional rugby.  The athlete still trains and plays with their home club and the program supplements that training.

We also run an age-grade participation program, where the focus is on fun, enjoyment and making new friends. 

We do not run an adult participation rugby program, nor do we wish to have more than two adult teams.  Our preference is to work with other clubs to ensure the athlete stays in the game and plays at the appropriate level in terms of commitment and standard. 

We believe the pathway should work both ways.  We regularly have adult athletes who leave our program, athletes graduating from our age-grade or our schools program who aren’t interested in performance rugby and wish to play recreationally, or athletes earlier in their career who may need game time at a lower level. 

We are always looking to work with other clubs on the player pathway, to ensure we keep players in the game, grow the sport and have a strong network of clubs supporting women’s and girl’s rugby.

International Player Exchange

We have relationships and run exchange programs with other high-performance clubs where we send our young athletes overseas to gain further experience.  This is often in the summer months when college is finished and our typical locations are to clubs in Australia, Canada and the USA.  

Similarly, we are always open to receiving players from overseas into our program.  

We believe experiencing other cultures can be of tremendous benefit to the athlete involved, to their home club or union, and to our athletes in our program. 

We have had players from USA, Canada, Israel, Spain, Italy, France, New Zealand, among others, play with us over the years.  We have good relationships with the club and international coaches, are able to provide access to game footage on Hudl, and work with those coaches on the athlete’s development.

#ChangeTheGame

#ChangeTheGame is our annual event to get the highest attendance at a women’s domestic game in Ireland. 

It’s a family day, with face-painting, kid’s games, music and food stalls. 

It’s fully supported by various partners, including Simmons & Simmons, DCC, IRFU, Leinster Rugby, Cardinal Capital Group, Cleaning Contractors and 20×20.

And it’s all in aid of LauraLynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice. 

Six Nations Fantasy League

We run a Six Nations Fantasy League for all age-grade players anywhere in the world, where the prize is a signed Ireland jersey from that Six Nations plus a Zoom Q&A call with your age-grade team and our Irish players!

Advocacy For Women’s Rugby

We led a seven-year campaign to recognise women’s players and clubs that play in Women’s All Ireland League as senior players and senior clubs.  This was passed by Leinster in May 2021.

We continue to advocate for appropriate representation for women’s senior rugby at provincial and IRFU levels.  For example, at present, no Women’s AIL club has any representation at any committee at the IRFU.  This is despite the fact almost all Ireland 15s and 7s players play with those clubs.  

Similarly, no Leinster Women’s AIL club has any representation on any standing committee at Leinster Rugby, despite five of the ten AIL clubs being from Leinster and almost all Leinster players playing for those five clubs.

We believe that senior women’s players and senior women’s clubs should have a voice in how their game is run and governed.

Schools Program

GX7s, which is girls cross-field 7s rugby, has been become more and more popular in girls’ schools and culminates in provincial and national competition. 

We have been coaching in schools in our community since 2012. 

Our Schools Program is a high-quality rugby provision that is tailored to each school’s requirements ensuring it is adaptable and suitable for all girls’ schools whether the aim is to improve a current rugby program or introduce rugby as a new sport.

Our team of coaches are widely experienced in all year groups enabling us to help the school achieve their sporting aims. We offer a variety of delivery options including curriculum cover, school team support and after school clubs, as well as developing bespoke coaching program for each school