Star contributor Eimear Corri (left) and Ireland ace Aoife Wafer at the premiere of ‘This is Leinster’
BY RICHARD BULLICK
LEINSTER launch their bid to complete a hat-trick of Vodafone Championship successes when their latest interpro title defence gets underway this Sunday with Ulster’s visit to Energia Park (2.30pm) in the opening round of fixtures.
Ben Martin has taken over from Tania Rosser as head coach, inspirational skipper Hannah O’Connor has retired and up to 30 notable names are likely to be absent for one reason or another, many of them missing due to Ireland’s forthcoming World Cup campaign.
As in the men’s game, Leinster are mass suppliers to the national team, which can be a double-edged sword and, with sevens commitments and injuries also a factor, Martin could be without as many as 11 proven performers from the back three sector alone.
However, the eastern province are going about business in their usual professional fashion, with excellent efforts to promote the team including a new series of behind-the-scenes videos and welcoming media in for an open evening in the lead-up to this campaign.
Having initially worked with a huge group of 65 players, including numerous talented youngsters, Australian Martin admits it was tough whittling down to the stipulated panel of 30 despite so many leading lights being out of the equation.
Leinster’s two adult teams both secured silverware last season, though an astonishing 287 days elapsed between Rosser’s women claiming their second consecutive interpro title and Leo Cullen’s men being crowned URC champions.
At face value, there may seem little linkage between one campaign confined to a single month last August and the other which stretched from autumn until high summer, but Leinster Rugby go out of their way to ensure the women’s game gets proper recognition.
With the URC campaign still not underway at that stage, the overall Leinster Rugby Player of the Month award last August was won by brilliant women’s vice-captain Aoife Dalton with her team-mates Linda Djougang and Ruth Campbell also shortlisted.
Emma Tilly (left), Aoife Dalton and Ella Roberts combined brilliantly for last season’s opening try
Reigning Women’s Player of the Year Dalton has been the joint face of Leinster’s new #NeverLessThanEverything brand with her fellow Irish international Josh van der Flier, with these superb players being given equal billing.
As well as adorning advertising hoardings in Dublin, that graphic featuring van der Flier and Dalton has remained as the constant banner image on Leinster’s social media channels since late last year and is emblazoned on all the eastern province’s correspondence.
Another recent example of Leinster’s genuinely inclusive approach is how three scores by the women’s team made the province’s Try of the Season shortlist even though the men’s side played many more matches, across two competitions.
Likewise, Leinster Rugby committed their resources to filming and producing a professional, fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary, bankrolled by main sponsors Bank of Ireland, which captured the women’s side’s successful interpro title defence last season.
It may be worth taking the time to do a dedicated review of that five-part ‘This is Leinster’ series on another occasion because it was a great watch and appealing to followers of female sport in general as such productions are few and far between.
There was plenty of footage from outside the matches themselves, including following the three players through whom the story was told – captain O’Connor along with Eimear Corri and Campbell, who are both locks but quite contrasting characters.
Leinster Rugby held a heart-warming proper premiere evening at the start of February ahead of the first episode being made available, one of a number of occasions when the women’s team was centre stage or at least shared the limelight.
They had their own presentation evening, Rosser and her players were paraded in front of the Aviva Stadium crowd at a European Champions Cup tie last December and retiring captain O’Connor was given a fitting farewell at a men’s match there in May.
The respected captain received a presentation on the pitch from the Leinster Supporters Club, another indication of just how integrated the women’s team are and in the eastern province’s consciousness rather than some afterthought as can be the case elsewhere.
Few photoshoots happen without a women’s player alongside male counterparts, and for example the self-effacing but thoroughly deserving and helpfully photogenic Dalton was used for a kit launch last year instead of some random model or else no female featuring.
There were thousands of likes and dozens of supportive comments after Dalton won Player of the Match for Ireland against Italy this spring and again great credit must go to Leinster Rugby for unashamedly giving the women’s game good exposure on their social channels.
Retiring skipper Hannah O’Connor receiving a presentation from the Leinster Supporters Club
Current Chief Executive Shane Nolan has been name-checked by Rosser for his fulsome support but another highly influential figure going back to last decade is Leinster Rugby’s Head of Communications and Media, Marcus Ó Buachalla.
Occasional TG4 ladies gaelic commentator Ó Buachalla has been very visible and hands-on in relation to the women’s team, for whom Leinster – a mention also to his former number two Lisa Doyle – have produced exceptionally comprehensive media guides.
Your correspondent had the privilege of spending an entire evening in the Leinster camp late last July, from team meeting – which featured the usual sing-song! – to gym session, pitch session and food, seeing first-hand what some of the documentary reflected later.
It’s always a pleasure covering matches at Energia Park, where an excellent crowd of 2500 turned up for the opening interpro in early August – sadly Leinster’s only home match of the season – thanks in part to the proactive efforts made to promote the fixture.
The IRFU missed a trick not staging last year’s interpro finals day there but it is encouraging to think of the potential fanbase which could be built in the future when a professional Leinster women’s team is competing in the Celtic Challenge and has a fuller fixture list.
Ironically, Leinster will be playing at their Donnybrook base three times in the space of four weekends this month as the forthcoming campaign commences with home matches against Ulster and Munster, and finals day on August 31 is also scheduled for Energia Park.
The three touchdowns which made the Try of the Year shortlist were Dalton slicing through off Nikki Caughey’s reverse pass against Connacht, the dazzling solo effort from rising star Robyn O’Connor against Ulster and Leah Tarpey’s in the final from Dalton’s line-break.
But my personal favourite was actually the very first try of Leinster’s successful campaign, which was sparked by the lively Emma Tilly launching a counter-attack after a Connacht kick deep inside her own 22 and linking with Dalton.
Tilly embarked on an arcing cross-field run and fed the converging Dalton, who turned on the gas down the main stand side of Donnybrook, stepped inside a defender and drew the next one before releasing winger Ella Roberts with a perfectly-timed pass.
Just back from a long lay-off after rupturing her cruciate in Australia, the tall Wicklow woman with the swerving stride reminiscent of Tommy Bowe took it home, helped by a classic shuffle, setting the sea of blue flags waving and energising mascot Leo the Lion.
Probably the brightest star of the Rosser era, Dalton would likely have been recognised as her province’s Women’s Player of the Year had she not won that gong 12 months earlier, but Ireland prop Linda Djougang was a worthy recipient at the Leinster Rugby Awards.
The diminutive Dalton would have made for a spectacular contrast with the 6’9” Men’s Player of the Year, South African RG Snyman, while exciting prospect Robyn O’Connor and Sam Prendergast picked up the respective Young Player awards at the black-tie event.
Having been named in the Guinness Six Nations Team of the Championship, Dalton was crowned Women’s Player of the Year at the Irish Rugby Awards, while namesake Aoife Wafer won Player of the Six Nations.
This month’s interpro title defence is set to be more challenging in the absence of multiple leading lights, but it is for how well Leinster Rugby serve the women’s game that Mary McAleese should consider them an exemplar for the integrated GAA now being envisaged.
Former Irish President McAleese is leading work to bring the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association together under the banner of a single organisation and Leinster Rugby have set a high bar for how the female side of their operation should be valued and supported.
Leinster’s interpro title winners on a lap of honour at a Champions Cup match in the Aviva Stadium
Aoife Dalton has had joint billing with Josh van der Flier as the faces of #NeverLessThanEverything
