{"id":729586,"date":"2026-06-11T12:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729586\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:08:21","slug":"ireland-hero-scoops-womens-six-nations-player-of-the-championship-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729586\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland hero scoops Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Ireland number eight Aoife Wafer has been named Women\u2019s Six Nations Player of the Championship following a public vote.<\/p>\n

The back-rower now becomes the first-ever player to win the award in back-to-back years, after previously claiming the gong in 2025, and beat Red Roses captain Meg Jones, France scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus and Italy back-rower Francesca Sgorbini in the process. All four nominees made the official Team of the Championship<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Wafer, who helped Ireland secure a third-placed finish in the Championship<\/a>, received 40% of the 15,000 votes after a strong individual campaign in which she finished second for carries (78), joint-top for dominant tackles (8) and post-contact metres (129), and joint-third for tries (five).<\/p>\n

Aoife Wafer named Women\u2019s Six Nations Player of the Championship<\/p>\n

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Commenting on the award, Wafer said: \u201cI don\u2019t even know what to say. Last year, I was the first-ever Irish woman and the youngest to do it, and to back it up is pretty special. The girls back home will agree with me that these sort of things don\u2019t happen without them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just grateful that I\u2019m part of an incredible team, and I get to come back to Quins and be a part of an incredible team here too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Kevin Potts, Irish<\/a> Rugby Football Union (IRFU) CEO, added: \u201cAoife is a truly world-class player and her achievement in being named Guinness Women\u2019s Six Nations Player of the Championship for a second consecutive year is truly exceptional and a testament to her consistency, work rate and impact at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo stand out in such a competitive field of world-class players speaks volumes about her quality and mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also commenting, Paddy Carberry, Global Sports Marketing Manager for Guinness, added: \u201cAoife\u2019s performances throughout this year\u2019s Guinness Women\u2019s Six Nations have been nothing short of exceptional. Her relentless work rate and leadership on the pitch embody the very spirit of the Championship \u2014 combining physical dominance with relentless drive and clarity of purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be recognised by fans for a second consecutive year speaks volumes, not only about her consistency at the highest level, but also the connection she has built with supporters of the game. Aoife continues to raise the standard and inspire, and we\u2019re incredibly proud at Guinness to see her legacy grow as a back-to-back Player of the Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Tom Willis scoops top gong before England departure as Noah Caluori claims two awards after Team of the Season snub<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland number eight Aoife Wafer has been named Women\u2019s Six Nations Player of the Championship following a public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,26779,44,760,103300,85],"class_list":["post-729586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729586","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=729586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}