{"id":621327,"date":"2026-04-21T12:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621327\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:11:11","slug":"erin-king-looks-to-lift-ireland-it-was-tough-some-days-to-keep-showing-up-ireland-womens-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621327\/","title":{"rendered":"Erin King looks to lift Ireland: \u2018It was tough some days to keep showing up\u2019 | Ireland women’s rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve months ago Erin King was not only told she may never play rugby again but faced the possibility of being unable to even run. Fast forward to now and the 22-year-old is ready to lead Ireland in their revenge mission against France this Saturday after their rivals knocked them out of last year\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> in King\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

King, who transitioned from sevens rugby after the 2024 Olympics, had sustained a serious knee injury against England at the 2025 Six Nations<\/a> which ruled her out of the global showpiece. It was a blow for Ireland\u2019s campaign with the back row going from strength-to-strength in the 15s game. In 2024 she had been named the World Rugby breakthrough player of the year after standout performances that included scoring two tries in the team\u2019s historic win over New Zealand at the WXV tournament.<\/p>\n

Just as her career was taking off, it all came crashing down in Ireland\u2019s 49-5 loss to the Red Roses<\/a> in Cork. \u201cI don\u2019t think I realised at the time the extent of the injury, I don\u2019t think they told me fully,\u201d King says. \u201cThen I met the surgeon and physios who were coming up with a plan because it was quite a unique injury, there were a few different options. It was really tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at first I was a little bit in denial and thought: \u2018No, I\u2019ll go to the World Cup.\u2019 That probably kept me going for a few weeks and then when I really realised it wasn\u2019t on the cards for me it was really tough, especially with the trajectory I was going in. I was really happy with the form I was in and the team were in a really good place. It was a lot to take but I was surrounded by really good people. Dorothy Wall was in a similar boat of missing the World Cup so we really leant on each other at the time to deal with those emotions. We felt like we were the only two that really understood. It was probably one of the toughest things I will have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

King\u2019s injury was rare as most of her cartilage was knocked off the back of her kneecap. Surgeons fixed the problem by performing a nano-fracture, which is a form of microneedling, to stimulate cell regrowth, using pig collagen to give her knee a new structure.<\/p>\n

She recovered, started rehab and in September ran for the first time. \u201cIt was a really emotional day that I will never forget. I sat down after [I ran] and bawled. I was overcome. It took a lot of hard work and mentally it was really tough some days to keep showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

King carries the ball forward during training. Photograph: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

King returned to the pitch in January for Wolfhounds and her form has picked up right where she left off. Her first international game back was against England at Twickenham earlier this month<\/a> when she scored a try on her return. The match was also her first as the Ireland captain after her selection was announced in January.<\/p>\n

Ireland lost but narrowed the gap against the Red Roses and defeated Italy on Saturday. Now the team are gearing up to avenge the controversial World Cup quarter-final defeat by France last year. King was in the stands for the match and says she was \u201cgutted\u201d for the girls, believing they deserved to win after going 13-0 up only for France to mount a comeback to triumph 18-13. The controversy arose as Aoife Wafer was bitten by the France player Axelle Berthoumieu, but it was not caught by officials. She was subsequently banned for nine matches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are quite excited to right some of those wrongs and get out some of those frustrations,\u201d King says. \u201cNo matter who the opposition is, we are going out to win that game. I do think it probably adds a bit of venom, the fact that we lost that quarter-final. It makes the game more interesting, the fact that it was so close and all of the drama in that game comes along with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we are really excited to go. I think we have confidence now from last weekend and I am really excited to go over to France. It is going to be a tough challenge but it\u2019s one we are embracing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Ireland overcome France it would put them in title contention. England are favourites to retain the trophy but, if they were to slip, Ireland could take the title for the first time since 2015. King says the team are targeting the top two, with 2017 the last time Ireland finished above third. \u201cIf you look back a few years ago there were a few Six Nations there that we did really struggle. It was like: \u2018Will this ever end? Will we ever overcome this?\u2019 Over the past few years we have really shown that we can compete with the best in the world. Something we talk about is competing with that top four, there is a gap there but I think we are closing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo break into the top two of the Six Nations is a big goal of ours and something that may be a little bit high to go for, but I really do believe we have the talent, pride and passion in the squad to get over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe just visit this page<\/a> and follow the instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twelve months ago Erin King was not only told she may never play rugby again but faced the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-621327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}