Go West Girls
The Irish Rugby newsletter gets sent to me via email and well this little title caught my attention...
Nuala Coyne from Corr Na Mona, the same Nuala that dragged me to my first rugby game and got me to also love the game. I loved the game, loved the social side but unlike Nuala, the pure love of the game does not mean your going to be good at it.
I love sport, I love all sport but Im just not that good at it, Im not the worse, just not the best either. I have plenty of good memories of playing rugby with the girls of Galwegians. There was plenty of good road trips to games all over Ireland, and Im proud to say I played in 2001 when Galwegian made there first final and we were runners up in the AIL final and the 3Nualas ran riot.
Hey Nuala Coyne, tis great to see how well ya done, UP THE WEST!
Nuala Ni Chadhain in action for Ireland
"Ni Chadhain can vividly remember her first rugby match, a baptism of fire in the County Cork town of Ballincollig. She had been dragged to training at Galwegians by a college friend the previous week and decided to travel with the team as a supporter for their first AIL League game to get a sample of what the game entailed.
“I got on the bus and as we were leaving someone told me that they only had 15 players and I’d be playing. I didn’t have too much time to take it all in and I started on the wing. I remember not knowing much about the rules or tactics and my first touch of the ball was an experience. I caught it and stood still and could hear the screams of ‘run’ from my teammates.”
A major factor in Ni Chadhain’s rise to prominence was the fact that she was such a keen footballer. She was fit and strong and admits that a large reason she took up the oval ball game was to keep fit in the winter months for the football in the summer. However once she started playing regularly her career took off at lightning pace.
“In October of my second season I started playing for Connacht and later that year I got an Ireland ‘A’ cap in their match with the English Academy. My first full cap was against Spain in the Six Nations in 2002, which turned out to be our first ever away victory in the competition.”
Since then her involvement in Ireland has taken her from Canada to Toulouse in an eventful four years. Colleagues and former coaches point to her dedication and hard work as been the key factor to the unlikely rise to prominence and Ni Chadhain admits she found herself hooked on rugby from day one.
“I never really followed the sport up until getting involved but now I am completely hooked. From watching it on television or going to games, I’m always involved. Most of my friends are playing at this stage and my young sister Sorcha is now playing with Galwegians and Connacht.”
Women’s rugby as a sport is growing rapidly in Connacht but it is still some way off the other provinces. On the field Galwegians are one of the strongest clubs in the AIL. Off the field developments are even more encouraging with huge numbers involved at schools level and the introduction of Roisin McNulty in the new role of Womens Rugby Development Officer.
“I think we are definitely making major progress. The interest in the game is growing but we need more development clubs. At the moment Galwegians are the only major club in the province and we could do with more clubs getting involved.”
Ni Chadhain is taking a year out from the game in 2007. The balance of working as a medical scientist in the University Hospital in Galway and playing international rugby has been difficult but rewarding over the past number of years and she has more then earned a break from action. "
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