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Bringing. Hogan Energy ambassador. It's great to meet

0:17

you here today. Tell me a little bit

0:19

about being a part of this Irish squad.

0:22

I know two games so far in the

0:24

six Nations didn't go your way but a

0:26

lot of positives. Eight their yeah it's am

0:28

I. I'm really enjoying being a part of

0:31

a squad of the more. I always have

0:33

loved playing for on and but there's such

0:35

a special like balls and exciting energy around

0:37

the place and it says it speaks binds

0:40

us. We feel disappointed after the game but

0:42

disappointed because we should have won and that's

0:44

we were so. Close at the end

0:46

and Switch is much different to the

0:48

disappointment that I felt in previous years.

0:50

So I love being a part of

0:53

the squad and and such an exciting

0:55

time We are just build and on

0:57

it. There's. So. Many of

0:59

those and good feelings and comfort the moment

1:01

and tell us how you felt after their

1:03

De France game in particular. I think it

1:06

really show that aren't and can make that

1:08

with a the best out there and that

1:10

was really a positive factor. How did you

1:12

feel after that game in particular I felt

1:14

pretty Me myself on the team felt pretty

1:17

positive after that game. Obviously. The.

1:19

Score Lot haven't scoreline and almost lose in

1:21

isn't the best thing that you can, you

1:24

know isn't what every athlete wants to do

1:26

boss play in France at home. They've never

1:28

lost a home before, so it's we. We

1:30

knew the challenge going into it that we

1:32

were face and so and we had a

1:34

lot of positives come out the game and

1:37

we felt pretty good gone into the league

1:39

game that we had improved a lot of

1:41

areas we had areas certainly that we had

1:43

to focus on which we did. So like

1:45

the Sap picked successor someone who coming back

1:47

in and made a big difference. So. It's

1:50

were improving. Game on game and yeah no.

1:52

felt pretty positive after the first game. Hey

1:54

you mentioned sam on and water player and

1:57

to have her back in there as one

1:59

of the. leaders and captains as well. It

2:01

must have been great to have her back out there.

2:03

Yeah, she's our co-captain for a reason. So she's

2:07

made, I'm pretty sure she made 30

2:09

carries in our Italy game. So it's

2:11

like, you just know the experience, you

2:13

know, take the captaincy

2:15

out of the experience and you know that she's

2:17

just a great player and that she'll get you

2:19

game line, she'll work in defence and she's there

2:21

for our set piece kind of leadership and management.

2:23

So she's such a key player that we did

2:25

miss in the French game. But it's certainly great

2:27

to have her back. The Italy

2:29

game then, I suppose was it a different

2:32

disappointment to not get the results there?

2:34

Yeah, especially because we had so much

2:37

ball in there 22. So we had

2:39

so many opportunities and it

2:41

feels so much worse whenever it's kind of

2:44

really simple errors that cost you

2:47

the game. So like handling errors or maybe

2:49

just an open play turnover that was

2:52

something like a lapse of judgement or

2:54

something so small that cost you the

2:57

game. We only lost by six points.

2:59

So it's disappointed in

3:01

that sense where I could have done something

3:03

different instead of the disappointment after France where

3:05

it was right. Okay, well, we kind of

3:07

knew the challenge we were going into. But

3:10

there was plenty of positives. So we kind

3:13

of just have to hide on to the

3:15

positives in the Italy game that we created

3:17

so many opportunities, we ran there 22 so

3:19

many times. So it's now just keeping the

3:21

composure elements and actually executing them now. Yeah,

3:24

you can definitely see the skill levels

3:26

have gone up even the physical element,

3:28

the cohesiveness between the players. You can

3:30

see that as well. They put down

3:32

to maybe the contract coming in the

3:34

professional side of things really open the

3:37

game. Yeah, I suppose that we have

3:39

so we had the interprose, we had

3:41

WXV, we had some club games, and

3:43

then we had the challenge. So we've

3:45

had just so much more exposure to

3:47

playing with the people beside us. And

3:49

that really makes a difference in the

3:52

attack and defence and every aspect of the

3:54

game and knowing if someone is in need

3:56

of a pick me up or if

3:59

someone you know, you're players a lot

4:01

better so with the competitions

4:04

that we've had this year and the exposure

4:07

to just playing with each other more has

4:09

really helped us I think. And I have

4:11

a new management in as well, has that

4:13

helped things? Yeah, yeah. Scott has been great

4:15

to be fair and he's really he's just

4:18

changed from the gecko or

4:21

he's brought in a very good background stuff

4:23

as well which has really helped so it's

4:25

not on us versus you with the management

4:27

in it like it's kind of

4:30

everybody's in the same, everybody

4:32

has the same goal, everybody's on

4:34

the same path and knows exactly

4:36

what we want to do and nobody's

4:38

working against each other or we're just

4:40

all there to support each other and

4:42

that is what Scott has kind of

4:44

created. He's brought in Sean Ryan our

4:46

culture our culture lead and he's brought

4:48

in Declan who was our defence coach

4:50

so and Elaine, Emma,

4:53

we've had so much more management

4:56

coming in this year so it just seems it's

4:58

a really good core group

5:00

that he has created around him

5:03

and it certainly shows

5:05

with the players being so much more confident.

5:07

And what does a typical week look like?

5:09

Now that the girls have the professional contracts

5:12

and that as well and so many of

5:14

them are full-time in it, what does it

5:16

look like week to week? So our contracted

5:18

week so just kind of our normal working

5:21

week would be you'd be in Monday, Tuesday,

5:23

Thursday, Friday so you'd have your you can

5:25

you've put the option to come in on

5:28

Wednesday for use of the hydro suite recovery

5:30

and come in use the maks and the

5:32

coaches are on site on Wednesday so you

5:34

can kind of use that as a tactic

5:37

app day where you kind of go in

5:39

and better yourself but we have we're in

5:41

from 8 until 4 Monday,

5:44

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and then the weekend

5:46

off to recover and rejuvenate but Scott

5:49

kind of has different themes for

5:51

each day and they change

5:53

whether you played at the weekend

5:55

or not so you'll have like

5:57

prime sessions which are prime sessions

5:59

on fundamental sessions which are more like

6:01

unit based and kind of more

6:03

installed so you're walking about sure

6:06

just really getting

6:08

clarity on your detail and then you

6:10

have like par and speed sessions where

6:12

it's just all go there's collisions and

6:15

there's the fast part of the game which we've bought in

6:17

a lot more kicking and kicking style

6:19

of our game so we're exposed to a

6:22

lot more different elements throughout the week and

6:24

bought eight to four Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday

6:26

and then have the weekend

6:28

off. You're smiling when you're saying

6:30

all of that do you love it? Yeah. You're

6:32

a full-time rugby player. Yeah it's great and it

6:35

makes a lot of people jealous whenever you tell

6:37

them that you're able to play sport

6:39

for a job something I never thought we'd be able

6:41

to do but I'm certainly very

6:43

privileged in what I do. And

6:46

you didn't start out in rugby you played

6:48

a lot of hockey you played GAA as well you

6:50

played for down your down woman so

6:52

how did you settle on rugby then? I actually

6:55

kind of never knew it was a sport

6:57

available so much but in my school

7:00

and kind of in my district it was never really a

7:03

woman sport not even tied my beard to a truck

7:05

he wasn't really available

7:07

for me so I only started playing whenever I

7:09

was 15. One of my friends,

7:13

Bala Hinch, started a ladies team and one of

7:15

my friends from school and my hockey team said

7:17

that oh well we have hockey Monday Wednesday but

7:20

rugby is Tuesday Thursday so do you want to

7:22

come have a go I think that you'd be

7:24

good at it and so I

7:26

went to Bala Hinch one week and for

7:28

a trial session for just to see what it

7:31

was might as well like I just love

7:33

sports any type and just

7:36

fell in love with it from the start so

7:38

it's such a unique game where you can have

7:40

the contact element in it I've never found that

7:43

anywhere else and it's something that it's

7:45

a strengthen my game anyway so I like

7:47

to that's what I loved

7:50

and obviously you played the sevens as well do

7:52

you think that you took sort of different activities

7:54

from the sevens game that you could bring into

7:56

the 15th yeah definitely that

7:58

kind of The

8:00

sevens is, you have

8:02

to be really good at your basics.

8:04

So your core four, like your catch

8:07

pass, your tackling, your evasion,

8:09

you have to be really good at

8:11

your basics because it's such a perfectionist

8:13

sport. But there's only seven people of you

8:15

on the pitch at one time on each

8:17

team. So if you make one mistake, if

8:20

you pass the ball to the floor, like

8:22

the score, you know, it's such

8:24

a perfectionist sport that you have to

8:26

really, really work on those things. So

8:29

I think that that has covered across

8:31

to my 15s game where I would

8:33

have quite a good foundation of skills.

8:35

But sevens also has

8:38

really improved my mental side of the

8:40

game where we have six games

8:42

in a tournament and sevens. So

8:45

if you lose your first game, you've only

8:48

got two or three hours until your next

8:50

one. So you really have to just park

8:52

it and not forget about it. You can

8:55

learn and improve and bring things on to

8:57

the next game. But it's that mental switch

8:59

of next job mentality where I think it's

9:01

really helped me, especially like whenever you're in

9:04

a six nations campaign, six games, if you

9:06

lose the first one, you can't be taken

9:08

that attitude into the next one or

9:12

if you win, you can't be placed on that kind

9:14

of thing. So it's helped me both sides of the

9:16

game. Yeah, it's a quick turnaround.

9:18

So when you have two losses, both

9:20

you have to park it quickly. You don't really

9:22

have time to be thinking about it other than,

9:24

I suppose, getting over those

9:27

mistakes that you made or right and those wrong.

9:29

So it is Wales next. How do you feel

9:31

going into that game and Musgrave Park? And I'm

9:34

sure that will help too. Yeah, it's great.

9:36

It's great to be on home soil anyway.

9:38

And we really need the like we heard

9:40

the card last weekend. They really pushed us

9:42

on. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the win for them.

9:45

But it's us. We

9:47

really need that extra edge next

9:49

weekend. Whenever we're in Virgin Media

9:51

Park, home

9:53

crowd really does make a difference. But I

9:56

suppose that Wales are coming off two losses

9:58

as well. So we just. have to make

10:00

that spot a set straight after the game.

10:02

It was, we just have to, we

10:05

learn from our mistakes, but we park it

10:08

and we learn faster. We learn faster than

10:10

we'll do, because they're coming from two losses.

10:12

We're coming from two losses, and it's who

10:15

can learn faster and who is more prepared and

10:17

ready for the game and then whatever you're in

10:19

the game, kind of implementing

10:22

those improvements from the first two.

10:24

But I'm really looking

10:26

forward to it. I know it's

10:28

going to be a very forward heavy game

10:30

where the wheels, set pieces,

10:32

very, very strong. So they're

10:35

scrummed, they're mauled, attacked, they're

10:37

mauled, fenced, everything about their

10:39

pick and go, their drives,

10:42

they're very strong women. So

10:44

I know that that's going to be a forward battle, but

10:47

I support myself. I kind of love that part of the

10:49

game, so I'm looking forward to it.

10:51

Yeah, you have an incredible mentality. You can

10:53

really feel your passion for the game and

10:55

your confidence for it, because you

10:58

just love it. Yeah, I'm a very,

11:00

very passionate and competitive person, so I

11:02

kind of sometimes a

11:04

little bit too passionate and competitive,

11:07

show you a little bit too much. But that's

11:10

neither here nor there, just trying to make

11:12

sure that whatever's on the

11:14

pitch is on the pitch. But I just

11:17

love the game. It has brought me so

11:19

many opportunities. I've seen the world with it.

11:21

I've made for life of best friends from

11:23

it, so I just couldn't say anything better

11:25

about it. Yeah, you've mentioned before that it

11:27

saved your life. What did you mean by

11:29

that? Well, whenever I was,

11:31

I've been through a lot of adversity and a

11:33

lot of trauma in my life,

11:36

so it was, like, sport was that

11:38

outlet. Sport was that kind of, it

11:40

allowed me to get outside of the

11:43

house. It allowed me to go

11:45

and see people, see friends, to

11:48

forget about any form of negativity,

11:50

to try and take

11:52

that positive switch, because not that nobody

11:55

knows what's going on in the background,

11:57

but nobody really does, unless

11:59

you say anything. and I wasn't really for saying

12:01

anything at that stage of my life and so

12:03

it's kind of everybody who had

12:05

a smile on their face, everybody who was

12:07

there, rugby such a community sport, they were

12:10

all so happy whenever you were there so

12:12

it kind of just lifted it has lifted

12:14

your spirits and then obviously being able to

12:17

outlet your frustration by like being able

12:19

to hit people you know tackle people

12:21

to that contact out in the game

12:23

was really good for me so and

12:25

just kind of gave me gave

12:28

me like a purpose I suppose and

12:30

that's that's why yeah you've been incredible

12:32

to speak out and showed a

12:35

lot of confidence very powerful and how you did that

12:38

do you feel that it's helped you speak in

12:40

it yeah I really think

12:42

so like I it's

12:44

so easy for it's

12:46

so easy to say that and whenever

12:49

you're around people every single day like

12:51

you need not that you

12:53

need to know them off the pitch but

12:55

it's just so much better we we once

12:57

Sean Ryan came in and said that and

12:59

we all agree that we want to become

13:01

the most connected team in the world and

13:04

rugby so like how do we do that

13:06

is the first thing to do that is

13:08

been learning each other off the pitch and

13:10

it's the person before the player

13:12

so it's kind of making

13:14

sure that you're able

13:16

to be vulnerable able to have that environment and

13:18

able to be comfortable in that environment so and

13:20

it is me it has made me become much

13:22

more approachable by my teammates I think where they

13:25

know that they know what I've gone through so

13:27

if they've gone through something similar even if they're

13:29

having a bad day they they come to me

13:31

and I like I've I've gone through plenty enough

13:33

I know plenty of advice to give them so

13:36

and kind of

13:38

way where I'm helping my teammates but also

13:40

they help me so much like I know

13:43

that and it was really

13:45

important for me that people knew

13:47

my my history

13:49

I suppose because if I was

13:52

having a bad day it's a little bit different

13:54

to just being a bit sad so and it

13:56

was important for me to be able to say

13:58

that so that if my teammates If I

14:00

said that to my teammates that I wasn't having

14:02

a great day or was triggered by something xyz,

14:05

that they knew exactly what I

14:07

was talking about and knew

14:10

the best way to help me. I hope you don't

14:12

mind talking about it now or bringing up friends

14:14

or something like that for people that might not know

14:16

it was the interviews that you did go

14:18

through and you spoke about it so well and I

14:20

think it's going to help so many people. Do you

14:22

feel that by speaking out you've now

14:25

been able to be yourself and even on the

14:27

pitch the way you play so freely? Yeah, definitely

14:30

and I think that it's... Like

14:34

I would have thought that whenever I was walking

14:36

about that I had this big sign

14:38

on top of me being like you are,

14:41

nobody knows this, you have some massive

14:43

big secrets that nobody

14:45

knows and like it's

14:47

not true, nobody knew

14:49

that, nobody

14:52

knew what was going on, nobody knew what has

14:54

gone on in my life but it was that

14:56

kind of I suppose

14:58

weight that was on my shoulders. You didn't want

15:01

that to define you. Yeah, so

15:03

I kind of thought that and

15:05

say if I was going through a

15:07

bad day or a bad couple of

15:09

days I'd feel really guilty because I

15:11

would think that I wasn't given 100%

15:13

before my teammates because

15:16

I was trying so hard. It

15:18

drains your energy trying to fake it

15:20

I suppose, being positive, being

15:23

happy, it really really drains your energy

15:25

so now I don't have to

15:27

fake it anymore. I have so

15:29

much more energy to lift weights, I

15:31

have so much more energy to be able

15:33

to perform on the pitch and connect

15:36

with the people around me so I

15:38

think it's been helpful anyway. Incredible and have

15:40

you got help, have you spoke to counsellors

15:42

and things like that? Yeah, I've been well

15:45

acquainted with the process for a number of

15:47

years anyway. And have you

15:49

ever had anyone reach out to you

15:52

that's maybe in a similar situation or

15:54

anything like that? I've had a couple

15:56

now more so saying that, more

15:59

so not saying that. that they've been through the

16:01

exact same thing, but that they've been through something.

16:04

And it's helped that the kind

16:06

of strategies that I've used, so like

16:08

speaking to people, speaking to family, that

16:11

they weren't able to do before, they were like, right,

16:13

okay, well, if you can do it about that, then I

16:15

can do it about this. Or I have

16:18

had one or two people, I think

16:20

it was been two, from my local

16:22

area that I said, I've went through

16:25

the exact same thing, and I'm actually

16:27

like, I had absolutely no idea that

16:29

you have, and it's great that

16:31

you've got the kind of connection, not

16:33

that it's great that you've got that

16:35

connection, because it's obviously for bad reasons,

16:37

but you always think

16:39

that you're alone with it, that you're the only one

16:42

that has gone through it, not the only one that's

16:44

gone through it, but say in your school, in your

16:46

class, in your year around you,

16:48

in your sports, you think that you're

16:50

just this big black mark walking about

16:52

the place that you've gone through something

16:54

that nobody else has, everybody

16:57

else is going through life swimmingly,

16:59

smoothly. And now

17:01

you're having people open up, and they've come in

17:03

to talk to you, because you've said your story.

17:06

Incredible. Well, that's amazing, thank

17:08

you for sharing that with us. And

17:10

with Ireland then, obviously, what is the

17:12

plans and ambitions for the next few

17:15

years, because I feel like it's a

17:17

real process with this team. Yeah, we're

17:19

definitely on that upward trajectory. We started

17:21

this year with NWXC3, we

17:25

won the competition, right, so

17:27

it's certainly, we've started in a

17:29

high, and we just want to keep continuing

17:31

that and keep growing. We're certainly not at

17:33

the same stage as other

17:36

countries in the Six Nations, other countries

17:38

in the world, and

17:41

even our men's national team, we're certainly

17:43

at different points of our game than

17:45

them, but I suppose

17:47

for the next couple of years, the

17:49

only thing that we really talk about is

17:52

that World Cup qualification. So we can

17:56

directly qualify through the Six Nations or we

17:58

can go through the... qualification

18:00

through, getting into

18:03

WXV2 and then

18:05

there's another qualification process through after that but

18:07

anyways neither here nor there but that is

18:10

just our main goal at the minute is

18:12

qualification for the World Cup and then

18:15

we want to contend at that World

18:17

Cup so we're just kind of taking

18:19

it game by game and kind of

18:21

short-term goal by short-term goal but I

18:23

suppose we're thinking of the World Cup

18:25

2025 and competing at that World Cup.