The tickets are completely sold out for Ireland’s group matches at UCD in the Women’s Rugby World Cup starting two weeks from tomorrow and yesterday Tom Tierney named the 28 players who will be representing Ireland in front of packed grandstands.
Captain Niamh Briggs returns from injury to lead the team and is joined by Nora Stapleton, Claire Molloy and Marie Louise Reilly who will all be playing in a third World Cup Finals.
Hosting the event is special though and something never experienced by an Irish team before. They have the advantage of a packed crowd cheering them on against Australia on the opening day of the tournament and will hopefully go on to achieve a place at the business end of the Finals in Belfast.
The World Cup of 2014 was in many ways a breakthrough moment for Women in Sport in Ireland when the team, led then by Fiona Coghlan became the first senior Irish team to beat the All Blacks and were watched on TG4 in their semi final against England by 500,000, many of whom would not have previously been exposed to the speed and talent that this team has.
They remain an amateur team though so in some ways the journey towards equality is still in the early stages. We write elsewhere today about the step backwards by the English Rugby Football Union in ending the full-time contracts of the team they will send to defend their World Cup crown.
Niamh Briggs is a member of an Garda Siochana, Marie Louise Reilly works with Dublin City Council as a Sports Officer. Lindsey Peat is a teacher and Sophie Spence has just started in a new role with Bank of Ireland.
They will return to those positions in September but for this one glorious summer, they deserve to be the centre of our sporting attention.
If you cannot make it to Dublin or Belfast all the game in the tournament will be broadcast live on eir Sport with all the Irish games also shown live on RTÉ television and covered on RTÉ Radio.
Here is the team that was announced yesterday, they have earned the right that we should recognise them and know the effort they are putting in to represent Ireland on a world stage.
Starting tomorrow Sport for Business will look at how each of the commercial partners of the Women’s Rugby World Cup are activating their relationship with the tournament. First up in the series will be Dublin City Council, followed by EY, Aon, Aldi, Lucozade Sport and all the other partners at global and at a local level.
