LiveWIRE2021 Conference Profile: Emily Lane

With just four days to go under International Women’s Day, IrishRugby.ie has been taking a look at the line-up for the IRFU’s #LiveWIRE2021 Conference.

Emily Lane will be joining the panel to discuss:

Positives and negatives of involvement in rugby due to COVID-19 with best practice examples from women in rugby on how they adapted.

Leadership styles, impact on leadership now and future, opportunities to lead in various roles.

Emily is an international sevens rugby player with Ireland and a third year Biochemistry student. Speaking ahead of the event, the Cork native has been reflecting on some of the challenges for rugby players in lockdown.

“Going suddenly from a team sport to training individually is really tough,” she said.

“There might be days when you’re going to training but you’re not feeling great but seeing your team mates might urge you on and you’d actually come away from the session feeling really positive.”

“Having to find that motivation yourself when you don’t know what’s happening and might be just running in the rain can be really challenging.

“It was having teammates that made switching to an individual training environment easier. We were able to keep in touch and just have our workouts over zoom.

“So we adapted as well as we could. We’ve had plans change and games cancelled but having your team mates to fall back in always makes it easier.”

The line-up in full is:

Su Carty IRFU Union Committee, World Rugby Council Member

Eimear Considine International 15s Player

Emily Lane International 7s Player

Anne Heneghan Connacht Rugby President