Womens' rugby Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

sullivlo · 01-02-2014 7:37pm

They are still entering 7's tournaments. The majority of the 7's squad are not a part of the 6N squad. The ladies 7's team will compete at events to warm up during the year.

sullivlo · 01-02-2014 8:45pm

France v England women's game on sky sports 3 now

rrpc · 03-02-2014 3:06pm

Interesting results so far. France beat England (again

) 18 - 6 and Wales were beaten by Italy 11 - 12. If I remember correctly, Italy were strong last year too.

Ireland Women top of the table as well! Keep up the good work ladies.

sullivlo · 03-02-2014 3:19pm

The results at the weekend completely blow open the competition.

Historically Italy are not the strongest. I know we only just beat them last year but the conditions were appalling. A few weeks ago Ireland beat Italy by 30+ points in a warm up game.

It will make for an interesting few match ups. And Ireland will take comfort from France beating England - a) it shows they are beatable (if they shut Alphonsi down, England lose a lot of their attacking strength) and b) even if Ireland lose to England, the championship is still within reach based on points difference.

sullivlo · 03-02-2014 4:16pm

Irish womens squad announced for the Atlanta 7's

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/30663.php

The Ireland Women's Olympic Sevens squad to participate in the Atlanta Rugby Sevens event on the 15th - 16th February as part of the 2013/14 IRB Women's Sevens World Series - has been named.
The squad includes three new players who have been identified as part of the IRFU's on-going talent identification programme.
The programme, which is open to the wider athletic and team sport community, offers elite athletes the opportunity to join an Olympic programme in what is a new and exciting international female sport.

Ireland have been drawn in a strong group in Pool B alongside New Zealand, England and The Netherlands and Aisling Naughton, Aoife Doyle, Elaine Ryan, Laura Walsh, Megan Williams, Nicola Cronin and Susan Vaughan travel to the USA to make their international sevens debuts.

Head Coach, Jon Skurr said "A lot of hard work has gone in to get us to this point so far. It's a big year for Irish women's rugby, there's a lot going on and one of our jobs is to extend the player base that we've got, so that we've got more people competing, which is why our talent identification process is so important.

"We've got a number of new caps going. It's going to be tough, but I feel we're really going to progress as the season goes on as these players develop their ability to play international rugby at the top level."

Team Captain Shannon Houston said: "It is so exciting and such a privilege to represent Ireland on the international stage. Taking part in the World Series is daunting but we know that by working together and working hard that we can take on anyone."

Ireland Women's Sevens Squad (Atlanta 15/16 February)

1. Aisling Naughton (Talend ID Programme)
2. Aoife Doyle (Shannon/Munster)
3. Christine Arthurs (Tralee/Munster)
4. Claire Keohane (UL Bohemians/Munster)
5. Elaine Ryan (Talent ID Programme)
6. Laura O'Mahony (Tralee/Munster)
7. Laura Walsh (Talent ID Programme)
8. Megan Williams (Saracens/Exiles)
9. Niamh Ni Dhroma (Buccaneers/Connacht)
10. Nicole Cronin (Shannon/Munster)
11. Nikki Caughey (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
12. Shannon Houston (Blackrock/Leinster)
13. Siobhan Barrett (Tralee/Munster)
14. Susan Vaughan (Railway Union/Leinster)

Interesting to see three people selected through the open days. A few new faces too. Just a shame the team is missing some of the fast speedsters from the 15's team!

sullivlo · 07-02-2014 10:13pm

Irish women beat welsh women 14-6 this eve.

Off to Twickenham for the triple crown!

vienne86 · 07-02-2014 10:24pm

sullivlo wrote: »

Irish women beat welsh women 14-6 this eve.

Off to Twickenham for the triple crown!

Just saw some of this on a jerky stream...just couldn't bring myself to go up to Ashbourne on a night like this......great result!

RuckingSwimmer · 07-02-2014 10:41pm

vienne86 wrote: »

Just saw some of this on a jerky stream...just couldn't bring myself to go up to Ashbourne on a night like this......great result!

Ah the weather wasn't that bad, got wet in the first half and blown dry in the second.

Was a good game, Ireland could have scored a couple more tries. There were times where faster hands would have had Miller with a huge gap in front of her to score in the corner. Great kicking by briggs both from hand and the tee

sullivlo · 07-02-2014 11:01pm

vienne86 wrote: »

Just saw some of this on a jerky stream...just couldn't bring myself to go up to Ashbourne on a night like this......great result!

Yeah the stream was shocking. I was meant to go but am sick so couldn't risk the weather!

Losty Dublin · 11-02-2014 4:09pm

The England Ireland game will be shown live on the RTE TV news channel. It kicks off in Twickenham approx 40 minutes after the men's international

sullivlo · 11-02-2014 4:21pm

Yeah, I may have bombarded the RTE rugby twitter account last night :P

Paulw · 13-02-2014 12:31pm

Great news today from RTE -

Women's Six Nations: Ireland Women v England Women (22 Feb, kick-off 6.20pm) will be live on RTÉ Two

Finally, some proper coverage.

sullivlo · 13-02-2014 12:38pm

Paulw wrote: »

Great news today from RTE -

Women's Six Nations: Ireland Women v England Women (22 Feb, kick-off 6.20pm) will be live on RTÉ Two

Finally, some proper coverage.

That's brilliant!

feargale · 17-02-2014 1:11am

Paulw wrote: »

Great news today from RTE -

Women's Six Nations: Ireland Women v England Women (22 Feb, kick-off 6.20pm) will be live on RTÉ Two

Finally, some proper coverage.

That's great, but I believe the match starts at 6.15.

Thud · 17-02-2014 11:11am

sullivlo wrote: »

Irish womens squad announced for the Atlanta 7's

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/30663.php

Interesting to see three people selected through the open days. A few new faces too. Just a shame the team is missing some of the fast speedsters from the 15's team!

Disappointing weekend for the sevens squad:
http://www.irishrugby.ie/sevens/29714.php

calfmuscle · 17-02-2014 5:06pm

Thud wrote: »

Disappointing weekend for the sevens squad:
http://www.irishrugby.ie/sevens/29714.php

Really disappointing, I don't understand why they are sending such an inexperienced squad though. I really hope some changes are made before next week!

[Jackass] · 17-02-2014 5:10pm

Are the women due to play a fixture in Lansdowne Road this six nations or did I just imagine that?

eyescreamcone · 17-02-2014 5:14pm

sullivlo wrote: »

Irish womens squad announced for the Atlanta 7's

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/30663.php

Interesting to see three people selected through the open days. A few new faces too. Just a shame the team is missing some of the fast speedsters from the 15's team!

I believe that the Rugby 7s (women) have received more funding for Rio than all of our carded athletes put together.
If this is so then it's a disgrace!

Thud · 17-02-2014 5:24pm

calfmuscle wrote: »

Really disappointing, I don't understand why they are sending such an inexperienced squad though. I really hope some changes are made before next week!

Commentator said they were lacking fitness too

eyescreamcone wrote: »

I believe that the Rugby 7s (women) have received more funding for Rio than all of our carded athletes put together.
If this is so then it's a disgrace!

The IRFU topped up the 300k the sports council gave to 1m, it's probably a bit more expensive to run a team but that performance doesn't reflect well, improvement needed next week.

RuckingSwimmer · 17-02-2014 5:29pm

[Jackass] wrote: »

Are the women due to play a fixture in Lansdowne Road this six nations or did I just imagine that?

They play their game against Italy in Lansdowne Road after the Men's game on the 8th March

sullivlo · 17-02-2014 5:47pm

calfmuscle wrote: »

Really disappointing, I don't understand why they are sending such an inexperienced squad though. I really hope some changes are made before next week!

Because they are focussed on 15's rugby in a world cup year. A lot of the women who would usually play 7's are playing in the 6 nations - Briggs, Miller, O'Brien to name 3. The competition clashes with the 6N. Last year England sacrificed the 6N for the sake of the 7's but are focussed on 15's this year.

sullivlo · 17-02-2014 5:48pm

RuckingSwimmer wrote: »

They play their game against Italy in Lansdowne Road after the Men's game on the 8th March

... and tickets are only e10, or included if you're already there for the mens match.

calfmuscle · 17-02-2014 7:33pm

sullivlo wrote: »

Because they are focussed on 15's rugby in a world cup year. A lot of the women who would usually play 7's are playing in the 6 nations - Briggs, Miller, O'Brien to name 3. The competition clashes with the 6N. Last year England sacrificed the 6N for the sake of the 7's but are focussed on 15's this year.

Thats not what i meant, I know the 15's girls were asked to choose either 15 or 7s and they have made desicion.

But the squad in atlanta had a girl who only started playing rugby this year!!
They also sent 3 girls in total who had never even played in 1st division. They have some great players on the extended 7's squad who were left at home.

Apart from Shannon and Claire the rest of the team was pretty green behind the ears!

Speed is obvious crucial in 7s but if the girls cant defend they have no hope!

sullivlo · 17-02-2014 7:45pm

calfmuscle wrote: »

Thats not what i meant, I know the 15's girls were asked to choose either 15 or 7s and they have made desicion.

But the squad in atlanta had a girl who only started playing rugby this year!!
They also sent 3 girls in total who had never even played in 1st division. They have some great players on the extended 7's squad who were left at home.

Apart from Shannon and Claire the rest of the team was pretty green behind the ears!

Speed is obvious crucial in 7s but if the girls cant defend they have no hope!

Oh it was the result of the nationwide screening. Of which there were many sessions and no criteria. I guess baptism of fire but there are likely better 7's players out there. They'd be better off recruiting at Kinsale 7's!!!

sullivlo · 17-02-2014 8:11pm

calfmuscle wrote: »

Thats not what i meant, I know the 15's girls were asked to choose either 15 or 7s and they have made desicion.

But the squad in atlanta had a girl who only started playing rugby this year!!
They also sent 3 girls in total who had never even played in 1st division. They have some great players on the extended 7's squad who were left at home.

Apart from Shannon and Claire the rest of the team was pretty green behind the ears!

Speed is obvious crucial in 7s but if the girls cant defend they have no hope!

Oh it was the result of the nationwide screening. Of which there were many sessions and no criteria. I guess baptism of fire but there are likely better 7's players out there. They'd be better off recruiting at Kinsale 7's!!!

eyescreamcone · 18-02-2014 4:55pm

Thud wrote: »

Commentator said they were lacking fitness too

The IRFU topped up the 300k the sports council gave to 1m, it's probably a bit more expensive to run a team but that performance doesn't reflect well, improvement needed next week.

The IRFU should be paying the full amount themselves

decisions · 18-02-2014 5:06pm

eyescreamcone wrote: »

The IRFU should be paying the full amount themselves

Why? 7s is an Olympic sport and we are looking to qualify, why shouldn't they get funding from the sports council?

eyescreamcone · 18-02-2014 5:17pm

decisions wrote: »

Why? 7s is an Olympic sport and we are looking to qualify, why shouldn't they get funding from the sports council?

They have not proved themselves at international level like the athletes MUST do before they get any money

Derval O'Rourke gets 12k

No 7s athlete has come near her level...yet!

Thud · 18-02-2014 5:32pm

I'd imagine a lot of is going to infrastructure and set up which are already in place for Athletics and not much directly to the players.
If they had the 15's players involved this year qualification looked feasible, with the current crew not so much and unlikley they will be one of the seven tier 1 countries in the world series next year

[Jackass] · 18-02-2014 5:43pm

RuckingSwimmer wrote: »

They play their game against Italy in Lansdowne Road after the Men's game on the 8th March

sullivlo wrote: »

... and tickets are only e10, or included if you're already there for the mens match.

That's going to be awesome, it would be amazing if most of the crowd stayed to watch it.

It seems weird that on the same day, tickets can be sold seperately. What if the mens Italian game is a sell out, everyone stays for the second game, and they've sold 10,000 tickets for the womens game? (for arguments sake)

The reason I ask is that I'm not going to the mens game, but wouldn't mind popping along for the womens game, but how are they managing the ticket allocation and will you be able to buy tickets at the ground?

RuckingSwimmer · 18-02-2014 5:59pm

[Jackass] wrote: »

That's going to be awesome, it would be amazing if most of the crowd stayed to watch it.

It seems weird that on the same day, tickets can be sold seperately. What if the mens Italian game is a sell out, everyone stays for the second game, and they've sold 10,000 tickets for the womens game? (for arguments sake)

The reason I ask is that I'm not going to the mens game, but wouldn't mind popping along for the womens game, but how are they managing the ticket allocation and will you be able to buy tickets at the ground?

It would be amazing if most of the crowd stayed to watch it but they're obviously not expecting people to if they're selling separate tickets. It will be interesting to see on Saturday how many people stay in Twickenham.

Not sure about tickets at the ground, they're up on ticketmaster at the moment

sullivlo · 18-02-2014 6:20pm

[Jackass] wrote: »

That's going to be awesome, it would be amazing if most of the crowd stayed to watch it.

It seems weird that on the same day, tickets can be sold seperately. What if the mens Italian game is a sell out, everyone stays for the second game, and they've sold 10,000 tickets for the womens game? (for arguments sake)

The reason I ask is that I'm not going to the mens game, but wouldn't mind popping along for the womens game, but how are they managing the ticket allocation and will you be able to buy tickets at the ground?

That's a good question. I had intended on just paying at the gate. Will check now and report back!

The Lost Sheep · 21-02-2014 10:01pm

Womens team in the Rio 7s drawing 7-7 at h/t with England.

Updates available on IRB website

Henwin · 21-02-2014 10:16pm

Are the Irish womens team payed to play in the 6 nations. Are they compensated for missing work, travelling etc?

sullivlo · 21-02-2014 10:39pm

Henwin wrote: »

Are the Irish womens team payed to play in the 6 nations. Are they compensated for missing work, travelling etc?

Are they paid? No. It's an amateur sport. Some are employed by the irfu or the branches for jobs within rugby but they are separate to their role in playing for Ireland.

Does it cost them? No. Their expenses are covered.

They take leave from work at their own expense. Most employers are flexible and allow them to work around their schedule.

JacquesDeLad · 21-02-2014 11:12pm

I think this weekend and the Italian game will raise the profile for the ladies game alot.

Then it's up to the sisters to do it for themselves.

calfmuscle · 22-02-2014 11:23am

As said the 15s girls are not paid but some of the 7s players are.

super_furry · 22-02-2014 12:08pm

So how is today's set-up going to operate? Seems very unfair on the ladies teams to have to play after the main event of England v Ireland. Fans of the ladies' teams aren't going to be able to get tickets and the stadium will almost certainly empty out after the first match.

The Lost Sheep · 22-02-2014 1:37pm

super_furry wrote: »

So how is today's set-up going to operate? Seems very unfair on the ladies teams to have to play after the main event of England v Ireland. Fans of the ladies' teams aren't going to be able to get tickets and the stadium will almost certainly empty out after the first match.

Why is it very unfair on the ladies teams?
They are getting an opportunity to play in Twickenham. As will be the case with the game in the Aviva, Fans of the ladies team's will be able to get tickets and there will be separate tickets for just the women's game. Some people, who bought tickets for mens game, will stay around for the womens game and many will not.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 1:49pm

I think it will be beneficial tbh. They will have more people there than they would otherwise. Some people will hmmm and haw about staying and then the Twickenham factor will play out when they remember how horrible it is to get back to London straight after a match! Pints and rugby? Yes please.

decisions · 22-02-2014 7:40pm

Disappointing to be pushed back over our own line, but we have looked good since.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 7:57pm

Great maul there.

Great try.

decisions · 22-02-2014 7:59pm

Very well taken try.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 8:00pm

decisions wrote: »

Very well taken try.

And good pressure on the English scrum there too.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 8:01pm

Some hit from Murphy there. Felt that.

decisions · 22-02-2014 8:01pm

Aside from that one scrum our pack has looked strong.

decisions · 22-02-2014 8:08pm

They are defiantly doing a good job of stretching us in defense.

I'll take a two point deficit.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 8:10pm

decisions wrote: »

They are defiantly doing a good job of stretching us in defense.

I'll take a two point deficit.

It was just a mismatch. They had FB and a winger. We had a prop and a hooker.

decisions · 22-02-2014 8:12pm

sullivlo wrote: »

It was just a mismatch. They had FB and a winger. We had a prop and a hooker.

I know, but it wasn't the first time we've looked exposed in that position.

sullivlo · 22-02-2014 8:52pm

Great break from Miller. Ireland seem to be digging deep to keep in the game. Finding another gear.

The ref is sh1te though.

Womens' rugby Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

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