Fitzgerald Feels There’s More Belief And Unity In Tullow Ranks

In Tullow, where rugby has become a big part of their community, this season has asked more questions of their Women’s team who have already given almost everything.

And yet, through 25 straight defeats, through form that would have collapsed lesser teams, through injuries that would have emptied other dressing rooms entirely, they have not walked away. They have not even looked like it.

To understand why, you have to understand people like Hilary Fitzgerald – a mother, an out-half, and a late convert to rugby. A Tullow RFC stalwart and someone who could have chosen easier routes but never once considered them.

Her story, like the club’s, is shaped by persistence. That persistence is the core of everything this Tullow squad has become during a stretch that most clubs would not survive.

Their 2025/26 season nearly started with a fairytale result. Having gone through all of last year failing to pick up a win in the Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division, the current campaign almost began like a dream.

A 29-26 loss to Ennis on the opening weekend was the kind of heartbreak that can define a year, and left the Tullow players crestfallen when that final whistle sounded at Blackgates.

The losing margin was three points, the emotional cost was immeasurable. But it lit something. Not despair, but defiance.

A belief that this small Carlow club, facing provincial and international players in squads far bigger and deeper, had every right to be in the Energia All-Ireland League. Staying there, however, has demanded more than anyone could have imagined.

“I would say our biggest struggle is depth of squad,” Fitzgerald told IrishRugby.ie. “Just the numbers and when we get injuries, I’d say we had about six on the bench last weekend not able to tog out just with various injuries.

“It’s just when girls go out injured then like replacing them is the struggle, and it might end up that people are playing out of position.

“Like we have a forward, Lana Brennan, who is playing nine for us. She’s normally our lead forward, calls the lineouts, but she started at scrum half against Ballincollig as our nine has an injury.

“It’s just carrying so many injuries and then not having people to replace them has been the biggest struggle, you know, and it’s been the biggest disappointment because for games where we should be competitive and really be getting the win, I feel we haven’t had our full side out if that makes sense.”

There is something almost heroic in the ordinary way she says it. No drama, no attempt to mask the difficulty. Just the reality of All-Ireland League rugby when you do not have the resources in terms of playing numbers.

For a club like Tullow, who are relying heavily on the local area around them to build a competitive squad, losing a player is not an inconvenience, it is a structural problem. Losing several is a crisis, and yet they have played on.

With Tullow it is often beyond the scoreboard. It is the development behind the scenes. A club that has produced Ireland internationals like Dannah O’Brien and Katie Corrigan, continues to have younger players coming through, and they can see a blueprint when they look at the senior side.

“I think on a whole level in terms of development of rugby for women, I think it’s a positive that we’re in the AIL,” explained the Tullow playmaker.

“I think it is a positive that local girls around can see a team that worked hard to get where they are, I think it shows the years of work and the coaches that have put their time and effort into us, that we can compete at a top level.

“I know obviously we’d like to have better results at the end of it, but I think it’s making our rugby better definitely at the development end of things.”

Fitzgerald’s own rugby journey mirrors the team’s resilience. She did not grow up in rugby, she grew into it. Now the 33-year-old is one of many experienced leaders within the group. A capped player with Connacht who learned a lot playing a sport she started quite late.

“I only came late to rugby, I took it up in 2017 when I was in my late 20s. Gaelic football would have been my background, with probably a lot of other team sports, a little bit of hockey, a little bit of volleyball and basketball as well.

“So I came late to it, kind of after college. When I started I played with Connacht in 2017 and 2018 for the two seasons. I was out-half with them and learned a lot.

“I would be friends with Alison Miller. She encouraged me. She was going for trials for Connacht and she said, ‘Come on and we’ll see how you get on’. Learned a lot playing Interprovincial rugby, that’s obviously a few years ago as well.”

Then life shifted. She stepped away from the pitch, focusing on family.

“Between having kids, I have two kids now, back at it and it is hard to manage it all in terms of time commitments because it is such a big commitment between on-pitch sessions and matches, travelling the country but (I’m) really enjoying it.

“I think Tullow is such a family and community of players. They really do look after each other which is nice to see, and it’s nice to be part of it as well and be involved.”

Even apart from Steven Hogg’s appointment as their new head coach, something has changed in the Tullow set-up this year. Something fundamental. There are times when sport shows you what a group really is.

A team that wins often might not know its soul. A team that loses repeatedly, but stays, understands itself deeply. Fitzgerald feels that bond, carries it, relies on it.

“I would say there’s more of a belief there this season that we know we are at this standard. Playing AIL, yeah, I think we have learned a lot, learned a lot of lessons.

I think we’ve become more comfortable in how we play. We have a good few new players this year, they’ve come into us which was great and a big boost.

“I feel like every game that we play with them, we’re getting more comfortable as a team and we’re kind of getting together as a unit. I think every match we use it as a learning curve.

“I think we’re a very resilient team because we put up with a lot of losses and we stick with it. I think as a team, like we do have a good team bond and good support system there, minding each other because loss after loss can be tough to take.

“I think we’re good at getting ourselves through that and taking the positives and taking the learnings from it as well.”

If one defeat stung more than the rest during their time playing at his level, it was the Ennis one in late September. The nearly victory. The one they should have had.

Leading 26-14 at the 50-minute mark, Hogg’s charges lost their grip due to a brace of tries from Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey, and Emma Keane’s boot. It was still Tullow’s first league points on the board, but it could have been so much more.

“The loss to Ennis definitely hurt the most. I think a lot of learning came out of that game on a lot of fronts, just even like there were new girls in the squad, a new coach, and I suppose we all learned a lot.

“We have to perform on the field if you want to get the results, like do I think we could have won? Yes. Do I think we should have won? Yes. In hindsight, would we have done things differently? Maybe.

“But I think the learnings that we got from it and the drive to stick at it, we’ll use it for the rest of the season. Like obviously we would have loved to win, and I think we were capable of the win.”

Newcomers Ennis have since used that victory to propel themselves forward, winning two more matches to sit sixth in the table. Tullow were left with the hollow echo of opportunity. But even in that, they refused to fracture.

“I suppose when you see Ennis going on to perform quite well in their last few games, like that was probably the drive on for them and the confidence that they needed to go on,” admitted Fitzgerald.

“For us, yes, in my opinion anyway we could have won and it comes down to the last few minutes of the game. I suppose making sure that we have enough to maintain the performance for the full 80 minutes.

“Fitness can be a thing, psychology can be a thing as well, and they’re all areas of the game that I think we can improve on and we have improved.

“If we’re working on our work-ons which is all we can do, I think everybody learned whether it was the supporters, the management, the backroom team, the squad, the new players, we all learned as a unit.

“We could be angry about losing, but I think we came together as a team. We spoke about what needed to change, we took it (the loss) although it was a negative, we took it as a what are we going to turn this into…

“What changes can we make to perform better in our next games, and look, although, we still haven’t got our wins that we want, I feel we are heading in the right direction as a team.”

That is why the losing streak is not the story. The losing streak is the surface. Beneath it is something that results cannot measure – stubbornness, unity, loyalty, and belief. This club does not break because the players who wear their colours week in and week out do not break.

As the second half of the season approaches, they know exactly what they face. They know the odds, the obstacles, the gaps in squad depth, the physical toll, the harshness of playing some of the most well-resourced teams in the country.

In a sport built around collisions, Tullow have mastered the art of getting back up. What comes after Christmas is not just a continuation of the season. It is another chance. Another swing. Another stand against the odds.

They may not yet have tasted an All-Ireland League victory, but there is something undeniably victorious about every weekend that they take to the pitch. When the day finally comes, and it will, the roar will echo far beyond Carlow.

Because some wins, the ones born from seasons like this, are bigger than any scoreline. Not every club could speak with such optimism after a long run of losses. Not every club would still be showing up. But that, in its simplest form, is Tullow.

“After Christmas is a fresh start,” insisted Fitzgerald. “We will have played all the teams, we know what their strengths and weaknesses are and we can try and exploit them if possible.

“I think for us now, our focus is on getting better and us performing to the best of our ability, doing the little things right and the rest will come, the game-plan will come hopefully.

“I think we do come together as a team and that is our goal. We have picked ourselves up for the last year-and-a-half and regrouped and gone at it and always done our best, and I think at times we’ve surprised some of the other teams.”

She added: “I know obviously playing the team (at the) bottom of the table, they might feel that it’ll be an easy game, but talking to them after matches we don’t go out there and give any team an easy game really.

“Rugby, it’s never going to be an easy game but we always try to put our best foot forward and try to be as competitive as possible.

“It can be difficult to get the results that we want to get, but I suppose that is what we’re working towards. We’re working to get better as a team and to improve our rugby.”

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