‘The Women’s Programme For Any Club Is Vital’ – Galwegians’ Wright

With this week being Women in Sport Week, IrishRugby.ie sat down to chat to Wright about growing Women’s rugby at the club.

One of the strongest voices for the Women’s game at Galwegians, Wright has helped to get many of their leading players to where they are today.

With ‘Wegians continuing to feature in the Energia All Ireland League Women’s Division, she has been heavily involved in their underage set-up which has seen many bright prospects go on to line out at senior level.

A native of Kildare, Wright did not play rugby until she was 30. Moving to Galway for a job in 2006, she soon met a group of Galwegians players on a night out and that served as the spark to get her involved.

“I spent most of my weekends at the side of a rugby pitch as a kid growing up in Kildare as my dad had played for Naas RFC and was a rugby referee,” she explained.

“I’d always wanted to play as a kid but sadly that wasn’t an option at the time, and it wasn’t until I was aged 30, when I first started to play the game, playing for Naas RFC.

“I played hockey for years both in Ireland and in Scotland, and was super excited and equally terrified to finally get to play rugby in my local club.

“I moved to Galway in 2006, officially for work, but unofficially to improve my love life! I met a group of women in a pub in Galway who just happened to be on the Galwegians rugby team.

“I told them that I had been playing rugby for Naas and was looking for a new team and that was it.

“I’m still in touch with many of my old team and see some of them regularly still as a good number of them are still involved in rugby in some way. And yes, I did meet my husband in Galway and through my rugby family!”

With girls rugby not being accessible to Wright when she was growing up, she is now at the forefront of promoting the game in Galwegians to young girls in Galway city and surrounding areas.

Women’s rugby has been in existence for over 25 years at ‘Wegians, and many players have worn the famous sky blue and black club colours before going on to represent Ireland, such as Sene Naoupu, Mairéad Coyne, Mary Healy, Edel McMahon, Laura Feely, and Nicole Fowley.

Currently sixth in the Energia All-Ireland League table, ‘Wegians are continuing to build off their strong history of producing quality players. It is all about nurturing the young talent and sustaining those pathways, admits Wright.

I think that the Women’s programme for any club is vital, particularly as it’s one of the fastest growing areas of the game. There’s a real hunger across the province to grow and develop the female game.

“Resourcing and funding of the game does need to develop as well to ensure real success for clubs looking to support a Women’s programme successfully longer term.

“We’ve had some good success over the years of building Girls and Women’s rugby at the club, but like most clubs we’ve had our ups and downs.

“Women’s rugby at the club has been in existence for over 25 years now. Our senior Women’s team has had significant success in provincial and international selections over the years.

“Losing to Suttonians in the All-Ireland League Conference final in 2022 was a low point for the team. The most recent highs would have been winning the AIL Plate two years in a row in 2022/23 and 2023/24, particularly after a number of key players retired in 2023 such as Mairéad Coyne, Mary Healy, and Fiona Scally.

“This season the women are currently sixth in the division under head coach Jack Clarke. We’ve had six girls from our squad appear in the Celtic Challenge, including Ireland International Nicole Fowley.

“We’re currently in the process of rebuilding our youth girls at the club. It’s like anything in life, you have to constantly nurture and build. It can be exhausting, relentless, and thankless at times, but ultimately really rewarding.”

Wright (pictured below on the right, in action for Connacht) officially retired from playing in 2011 and took a step away from Galwegians, returning when her eldest child was five-years-old.

Watching on from the sidelines, she was encouraged to come back and help out with coaching, and from that point on her influence began to spread at coaching and committee levels at Crowley Park.

She first got involved as a mini rugby coach, then coaching various teams and working on getting an Under-14 girls team back up and running before taking up the director of Women’s rugby role.

Along with that, Wright was also a minis co-ordinator at the club, showing her great drive and passion to get the best out of their underage rugby structures.

Plenty of young girls are getting to experience playing rugby with ‘Wegians through the IRFU’s Canterbury ‘Give It A Try’ programme, and the city-based club also work closely with their CRDO (Club Rugby Development Officer) and Connacht Rugby on increasing player numbers locally.

“When my eldest was ready to start playing mini rugby, I was watching from the side of the pitch and was encouraged to come and help out with the coaching and that was it. I was hooked!

“I started as a minis coach in the club, coaching boys and girls and started to get involved in restarting an U-14 girls team.

“I got roped in to serve as a director of Women’s rugby and serve on the club committee by my ex-team mate and former Ireland international, Ruth O’Reilly.

“After two seasons as director of Women’s rugby, I served as minis coordinator all while trying to reignite girls youth rugby at the club.

“This season I’ve been supporting my mini co-ordinator successor transition into the role, and focusing on coaching and acting as manager for our U-12 and U-14 girls.”

Wright added: “We’ve run ‘Give It a Try’ for a number of seasons, albeit with mixed results to be fair. Some years are better than others in terms of numbers. It’s a challenge recruiting girls in numbers as a city club with many competing sports and activities locally.

“We’ve also been utilising our club CDRO to get into some local schools to promote rugby and promote the girls teams at the club.

“Probably the most standout programme for youth girls this season has been our glo-rugby sessions which have been a huge success – well attended and brilliant fun.

“Essentially it’s rugby in the dark under neon lights. Think 1980s disco meets Tag rugby! We’ve been aiming that at girls aged 10 to 15 and they’ve had an absolute blast.

“They put on neon paint and neon leg warmers and headbands and play rugby in the dark. What’s not to like about that!”.

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