Aoife Dalton with her Women’s Player of the Year trophy at the recent Irish Rugby Awards
BY RICHARD BULLICK
BACKLINE anchor Aoife Dalton will be back in the green jersey on Saturday for the first time since the outstanding young Offaly woman made the official 2025 Six Nations Team of the Championship and was crowned Ireland Player of the Year.
Compact centre Dalton is one of several frontliners returning to Scott Bemand’s side for this weekend’s final fixture before the World Cup at Belfast’s Affidea Stadium (12 noon, BBC2) against a fancied Canadian team who sit second in the international rankings.
Last weekend’s opening World Cup warm-up game against Scotland at Virgin Media Park was a new experience for Dalton as it was the first time in 25 Ireland fixtures, since her try-scoring debut in Japan three years ago, that she hadn’t been part of the matchday squad.
Ireland boss Bemand used the Cork clash to give Nancy McGillivray, who has switched her allegiance from England this summer, a run at outside centre, and the Exeter Chiefs player scored one of the host nation’s five tries in the victory over Scotland.
However, in his interview afterwards, while praising newcomer McGillivray’s debut display, Bemand name-checked one of his most dependable performers, saying: “We know the quality and calibre that Aoife Dalton has in that 13 shirt.”
With Enya Breen brought up from the replacements panel to start alongside Dalton, the centre pairing from Ireland’s last two Six Nations matches this spring has been restored so Eve Higgins reverts to the bench this weekend after a great display against Scotland.
There was already excellent competition between that top trio, all of whom are influential figures in this set-up, with the arrival of McGillivray adding even more midfield depth ahead of the forthcoming World Cup.
Being crowned Women’s Player of the Year at the Rugby Players Ireland Awards at the end of May was the perfect way for Dalton to round off a special season not just in her country’s colours but as vice-captain for silverware-winning Leinster and Wolfhounds sides.
Peer recognition is especially prized by sportspeople in all codes and the diminutive Dalton, who had just turned 22 since the season ended, received the most votes from her fellow female representative players, giving her a boost ahead of a massive summer.
Dalton secured Irish women’s rugby’s top individual accolade ahead of fellow nominees Dorothy Wall, Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe and Niamh O’Dowd on a night when Erin King won Young Player of the Year and Anna McGann took home the Try of the Year award.
Wall was superb for Ireland in this spring’s Guinness Six Nations on the back of having a great first season for Exeter Chiefs while Murphy-Crowe stood in as skipper at times during the Championship whenever Edel McMahon wasn’t on the pitch.
Both formidable Munsterwomen scored three tries during the Six Nations, while loosehead prop O’Dowd has arguably been Ireland’s most improved player over the past season since just getting her first start against Australia last September.
As well as being an excellent candidate, Wall might have been expected to attract an even subconscious sympathy vote having been cruelly ruled out of this summer’s World Cup through injury along with Young Player award recipient King.
But the understated Dalton was a worthy winner for her superb body of work over the previous eight months, which included a Player of the Match performance in Ireland’s 54-12 record rout of Italy in Parma where she scored the opening try for the visitors.
Aoife Dalton scores Ireland’s first try in the win over Australia at Ravenhill last September
Shortlisted for Player of the Round on the back of that display, Dalton went on to be one of three Ireland stars to make the official Team of the Six Nations along with namesake Aoife Wafer and Ulsterwoman Neve Jones.
She also made leading English Six Nations pundit Shaunagh Brown’s 2025 Six Nations XV, featured in the Fantasy Team of the Six Nations and has had her name bandied about as a strong contender for the inaugural women’s Lions squad in 2027.
Those accolades are testament to how well Dalton has bounced back from unluckily losing her starting spot for the three home matches in the 2024 Six Nations and being an unused sub for the final fixture of it.
That Ravenhill victory over Scotland was the only time midfield dynamo Dalton hadn’t made it onto the field in Ireland’s last 24 Test matches, stretching back to that distinguished debut aged just 19 on the historic summer tour to Japan in August 2022.
Dalton has started 20 of those matches, including eight out of nine last season despite fierce competition from more experienced rivals in former Ireland vice-captain Higgins and Breen, who was stand-in skipper against both Canada and USA last autumn.
Along with winger Murphy-Crowe, the 21-year-old was the only Irish player to feature for all 400 minutes of the 2025 Six Nations, and Dalton’s durability has helped her clock up more game-time at the elite level than anyone else this past season.
Newly-appointed vice-captain Dalton was on the field for every minute of Leinster’s successful interpro title defence last August and lined out eight times for Wolfhounds as they retained their Celtic Challenge crown.
Old Belvedere’s Dalton was the only Ireland frontliner to manage a couple of starts for her club in the All Ireland League last autumn in the window between returning from the WXV1 tournament in Vancouver and the Celtic Challenge getting underway.
Although her availability for club rugby was understandably limited, Dalton gave her best for Belvo on those two outings like she did for Ireland, Leinster and Wolfhounds during a season which saw her play 23 matches – 17 of which were won – for four separate teams.
Aoife Dalton with Young Player of the Year Erin King (left) and Anna McGann (Try of the Year)
In her first match as Leinster vice-captain, the opening interpro against Connacht, Dalton scored one try and created three others before crossing the whitewash against Munster and Ulster and then making the break for centre partner Leah Tarpey’s conclusive try in the final.
Dalton was voted Leinster Rugby’s Player of the Month for August, with her try against Connacht and Tarpey’s from the final both being among the six shortlisted for the eastern province’s Try of the Season from both the men’s and women’s sides.
Having picked up Leinster Women’s Player of the Year 12 months ago may have counted against Dalton being anointed again this season, with Djougang getting the nod instead, but the boot was on the other foot with the RPI Women’s Player of the Year award.
Last year’s winner Wafer was a notable absentee this time round despite her hugely impactful performances in the green jersey, though unlike Dalton the loose forward didn’t feature much for Leinster or Wolfhounds during the season.
Although some may think of the RPI awards as simply being for ‘Ireland Player of the Year’, they are actually more broadly-based as evidenced by the uncapped Tom Farrell’s nomination in the men’s category on the back of a fantastic season for Munster.
So Dalton’s excellent Leinster performances contributed to her being a worthy winner of the OCC Consulting Women’s Player of the Year award and had also set her up well for reclaiming the Ireland No 13 jersey at the start of a memorable autumn for the national team.
She set the ball rolling with the opening try against Australia in Ireland’s impressive victory at Ravenhill in the match which officially launched the IRFU’s 150th anniversary celebrations and gave Bemand’s side confidence for their inaugural WXV1 campaign in Vancouver.
Dalton had to leave the field temporarily for running repairs during the famous upset of world champions New Zealand having caught a boot in the face which left her nose streaming blood when hitting up fast to pin the Black Ferns back just after they had taken the lead.
The clash with hosts Canada six days later was the only one of nine internationals during the season that Dalton didn’t start, though the replacement’s blistering break from her own line off turnover ball late on momentarily dangled hopes of an Ireland lifeline.
Back in the run-on line-up for the victory over USA which secured runners-up place for Ireland in the tournament, Dalton retained her starting spot right through the subsequent Six Nations after a series of good displays for Wolfhounds in between.
With skipper Claire Boles off the field by then, deputy Dalton was acting captain when she completed her hat-trick of tries against Brython Thunder at Belfield Bowl and, like the previous season, was a consistently influential figure for Neill Alcorn’s champions.
Dalton’s clean break early on in the Six Nations opener against France had the Ravenhill crowd on their feet but that Belfast fixture will also be remembered for her two wonderful turnovers, one of which saved a try.
She eagerly joined the mauls which led to both of Ireland’s second half tries, making an especially effective contribution before Jones’ touchdown, and then had that superb performance next time out against Italy.
In addition to her well-taken try, nine carries and 15 tackles, it was Dalton who bravely managed to get her body under the ball to prevent the Italians scoring with the clock red at the end of the first half.
After fighting gamely against England, there was another huge shift from the industrious Dalton in the away win over Wales, when she was ferociously physical on both sides of the ball and earned one classic turnover penalty after making the vital initial tackle.
Used as the spearhead of Ireland’s attacking game in the final fixture against Scotland, Dalton had more carries than any other back, beat five defenders and played the whole match despite sustaining a painful ankle injury in the second quarter.
Young Player of the Year winner at the 2023 RPI Awards on the back of starting every match in that season’s Six Nations as a teenager, Dalton is now an experienced campaigner but was still young enough to have been shortlisted for that category again this time.
That award went to King, World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year, on a night when outhalf Sam Prendergast won the men’s equivalent and Dalton took top billing with Munster skipper and Ireland star Tadhg Beirne who was named Men’s Player of the Year.
