NEW Year, new beginnings, a new sporting calendar.
I don’t know about you, but I love the newspapers at the start of January that come with a pull out section listing, month by month, the sports events that will take place over the next 12 months.
Paris was the pinnacle of sporting achievements last year with our best ever Olympics and records being broken after years of waiting. It gripped the nation and birthed a new generation of budding sports stars who believe they can emulate the success of Rhys McClenaghan, Daniel Wiffin, Hannah Scott, Jack McMillan and the other Olympic medallists in the future.
After the countless celebrations (very well deserved, may I add) many of those athletes have already started their preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. But, before that, we have so much sport to look forward to in the coming months.
The start of each new year means the Guinness Six Nations rugby is just around the corner. This will be an interesting year for both the men’s and women’s Irish Rugby teams. Simon Easterby takes interim charge of the men while Andy Farrell prepares for the Lions Tour this summer.
After an indifferent Autumn Series in November there will be much interest in how Ireland perform during this year’s Six Nations. They are the defending champions and narrowly missed out on back to back Grand Slams last year due to a one point defeat by England. Their success in the second test in South Africa on their summer tour left us all excited at the prospect of the All Blacks coming to Dublin to kick off the November series. But, in reality, a poor performance and defeat to New Zealand left some sections of the media asking Andy Farrell if this current team is past it’s peak.
Wins over Argentina, Fiji and Australia followed but Farrell and captain Caelan Doris admitted work is needed to get back to the standard they all expect internally.
Simon Easterby has been around the group since 2014 so he is as well equipped as anyone to take charge in Farrell’s absence. His first test will be straight into the deep end with a Six Nations opener against England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, February 1.
The women, on the other hand, have been going from strength to strength. Scott Bemand’s first full year in charge proved a huge success with qualification to this year’s World Cup in England secured and an historic win over World Champions New Zealand the highlights.
Ireland were left facing a new low point after failing to qualify for the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand but have turned things around quicker than anyone expected.
I spoke to the Rugby Writers of Ireland Women’s Player of the Year Aoife Wafer at the awards ceremony in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
“We weren’t happy with our finish in the 2023 Six Nations but then qualifying for the World Cup and coming third in that group, beating the Black Ferns in Canada and finishing second in the WXV1, it’s been a whirlwind year. The girls have all worked so hard to achieve it,” she told me.
“We knew we just had to keep working hard. We always had the talent there it was just a matter of how do we get that across on the world stage.
“It’s down to a number of things, obviously new staff coming in. But Sean Ryan (High Performance Culture and Leadership Lead) made a huge change in our environment. The girls all started to believe in ourselves again and believing that we are worthy of competing on the world stage and competing with the best teams on that.”
The Black Ferns game was one Aoife will never forget. A 29-27 victory for Ireland stunned the World Champions in Vancouver in their WXV1 opener.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid,” Aoife continued.
“I’ve watched it back so many times – for both analysis and just for fun!
“One of the questions we get asked all the time when we are coaching or in schools from kids is ‘what’s it like to face the Haka?’ Before that game only two people in the squad could answer that but now we can talk about what it’s like to beat New Zealand and we can’t wait to face them again in the World Cup. We know we can put in a performance against them now so why not do it now on the biggest stage?
“Players like Fiona Coughlan have helped bring Ireland to the semi final of a World Cup before so we just have to go and do it again. We’ve always believed we could deliver big performances but it was just a matter of doing it. We know have huge backing from the IRFU and from the whole country so it’s about building that green wave and we are ready to take that green wave across the shore now to England!”
January is the month when most holidays are booked as the winter blues set in and many will have a countdown until the down of the day of travel but for the Irish Women’s Rugby team their countdown is for August 25 – their first game in the World Cup against Japan.
“I have the countdown set on my phone – it’s the big one!” Aoife smiled.
“The last World Cup that Ireland were in was in 2017 in Ireland. I still have photos on my phone of me with some of the Irish team – I was fan girling them all! Now all of a sudden, I have an opportunity to hopefully represent Ireland at a World Cup, I’m very grateful for that.
“We obviously have different targets set out for the Six Nations first but you can feel the excitement building already for the World Cup.”
Along with the Six Nations, a Lions Tour to Australia and the Women’s Rugby World Cup we also have the football World Cup qualifiers, The Open returns to Royal Portrush and the Ryder Cup will take place at Bethpage this autumn. That’s just a few sporting countdowns to whet the appetite for 2025.
And while we are on the subject of New Year, may I extend huge congratulations to Hannah Scott, Claire Taggart and Marissa Callaghan who were all recognised in the King’s New Year Honours list. Three role models who fully deserve their accolades.
A big year lies ahead for Northern Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers, I watched the last home match of 2024 with Kyle Lafferty and Carl Frampton. Northern Ireland beat Belarus 2-0 at Windsor Park and went on to finish top of their Nations League group and earn promotion
Interviewing Zac Ward for UTV after his competitive debut for Ulster… can he break into the Irish rugby team after starring for the Ireland 7s team in Paris last year?
