Some films entertain you, some move you, and some stay with you long after you leave the cinema. TRY! does all three.
We don’t normally carry movie reviews, but this one is special and deserves to be seen by as wide a sporting audience as possible for what it shows about the power of what we do in sport.
Watching it at the Light House Cinema in Dublin last week was an emotionally charged and wonderfully uplifting experience. It is a film about rugby, friendship, family and the profound difference it makes to have somewhere you belong.
Directed by Oisín Mistéil, the documentary follows four Irish players and their teams towards the Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup in Pamplona. Players with and without disabilities compete together in full-contact, 15-a-side rugby. Ambition, commitment, and a very real desire to win drive them. The community built around the teams extends far beyond the final whistle.
At its emotional heart, for me, is Maeve, captain of the Ballincollig Trailblazers.
That captaincy means a lot. Being trusted to lead a team carries a powerful message about how others see you and how you can see yourself. In Maeve’s story, that recognition gives the film some of its deepest resonance.
Her friendship with Clodagh is particularly affecting. Through their relationship, inclusion becomes personal and tangible: having a friend beside you, sharing an experience, caring about each other, and being part of something together.
It is the kind of connection that explains why people return to training on cold evenings and why a club can become such an important part of a life. Rugby provides the meeting place. The friendship gives it meaning.
Maeve’s relationship with her parents adds another deeply moving dimension. Their love, and the significance of seeing their daughter take her place as a player and a leader, reach straight into the heart of the film.
For any parent, something is profoundly recognisable here: the hope that your child will find friendship, acceptance, and the confidence to make their way in the world. Maeve’s story gives that hope a face.
The stories of Paul at Dublin Vikings, Tommy and Richie are equally powerfully told, and all three gave of their all at last week’s Premiere as well as on the big screen.
We get to care about the person wearing the jersey, and that makes everything that happens on the pitch more compelling.
The film’s origins help explain that closeness. Mistéil became intrigued by Mixed Ability Rugby around the 2022 World Cup in Cork. He and producer Claire McCabe attended training sessions and matches, where the community’s personalities and spirit drew them in. The project took three and a half years to complete, with time spent earning the trust of players and families and getting to know their lives away from rugby.
Produced by McCabe, with David Collins as executive producer and support from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán and Virgin Media Television, TRY! brings those lives to a much wider audience. It arrives in Irish cinemas on Friday, October 2, having won Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.
There is plenty of emotion, but also humour, warmth and the pleasure of getting to know people whose company you enjoy. That balance makes the film so uplifting. Its subjects have sporting ambitions, friendships, personalities and lives that deserve our attention.
For those of us working in sport, it also offers a powerful reminder of what participation can deliver. We spend much of our time discussing investment, facilities, strategies and numbers. Here are the human relationships that give all of those things their purpose.
Anyone who cares about sport, or indeed the human condition, should do themselves a favour and see this movie on the big screen.
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Image Credit: TRY!
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