{"id":344806,"date":"2026-03-13T20:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344806\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:58:11","slug":"i-was-six-when-i-decided-i-wanted-to-play-rugby-for-ireland-beating-new-zealand-was-the-stuff-you-dream-of-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/344806\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was six when I decided I wanted to play rugby for Ireland… Beating New Zealand was the stuff you dream of\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ripe old age of six was when the decision was made: I wanted to play rugby for Ireland<\/a>. Without even knowing there was an international women\u2019s team, and having no idea what was involved to reach that level, I set my sights on wearing the green jersey.<\/p>\n

It was my parents who proved my dream could be a reality. After eventually letting me join the boys\u2019 team in Gorey<\/a>, where my brothers played, following quite a bit of pestering on my part, they started bringing me to Ireland women\u2019s games once my interest in rugby became clear. We\u2019d set off from Wexford to see their home games, usually in Ashbourne or Donnybrook, and the atmosphere was always incredible. Those games were a chance for me to see my heroes \u2013 Ireland\u2019s Grand Slam Class of 2013 \u2013 in action. <\/p>\n

On my 10th birthday, the best gift imaginable arrived: a framed Ireland jersey signed by the entire team. It has hung in pride of place above my bed ever since, a constant reminder of my goal, but now it\u2019s alongside a framed Ireland jersey of my own.<\/p>\n

What Little Aoife didn\u2019t anticipate was just how special it feels to represent your country. My first cap came in a win over Italy in the 2022 Six Nations<\/a>, and \u2013 as is the tradition for players making their debut \u2013 I treated the squad and some late hangers-on from the crowd at Musgrave Park to a rousing rendition of Miley Cyrus\u2019s Party in the USA. Getting to line out for your country and be part of days like that is a privilege. If you could bottle that feeling, you\u2019d be a millionaire.<\/p>\n

It helps that we have a close squad. We say we want to be the most connected team in the world. That\u2019s hard to quantify, but a big part of it is being honest and open with each other. We all share our personal \u201cwhys\u201d \u2013 why we play rugby, what we want to achieve \u2013 and it\u2019s extra motivation to give that bit more for the team and your team-mates. They know your why, and they want to help you achieve it, and you want to help them achieve their whys in return.<\/p>\n

And some days it all comes together. Beating New Zealand in the WXV1 in 2024<\/a> was one of those days. Before the game, if you read the papers or listened to pundits we were written off. We\u2019d gone from WXV3 in 2023 to the top tier that season, so most people thought we were going to get absolutely pummelled in our group. We just drowned it all out. The Black Ferns were world champions at that point, so we had to pay them the respect they deserved, but we had belief in ourselves and we knew what we were capable of. When Dannah O\u2019Brien kicked the ball out for the final whistle (to win 29-27), it was one of those moments when you realise how far we\u2019d come as a team. It\u2019s the stuff you dream of when you\u2019re a six-year-old chucking a ball around in Gorey.<\/p>\n

After the win, I was on a panel with Brian O\u2019Driscoll<\/a>, and he asked, \u201cSo, what\u2019s it like to beat New Zealand?\u201d He\u2019s one of the greats of Irish rugby, so him asking that question really hammered home how special the result was. Our lineout coach always used to say, with those kinds of wins, it\u2019s a feeling that no credit card can buy. It\u2019s something that you can\u2019t hold, but it stays with you.<\/p>\n

But not all results go your way. Our season ended last year with a World Cup quarter-final loss to France<\/a>. A knee injury kept me out of the pool games, but the girls were phenomenal, they just kept building through the tournament. Come the quarter-final, I was ready and eager to fulfil a childhood dream of playing at a World Cup. We were trailing 18-13 as the clock ticked towards full-time, but even up to the 80th minute we still believed we could do it. We had a lineout and fully believed we were going to score off the back of the maul and win it, or push the game to extra time, but it just didn\u2019t happen for us. We were heartbroken.<\/p>\n

The following day, you\u2019re back home in Ireland. You lose a game, and then it\u2019s, \u201cOkay, see you in four years\u2019 time.\u201d That\u2019s the reality of sport, it\u2019s cruel. You don\u2019t always get what you want and you don\u2019t always get what you deserve.<\/p>\n

\"AoifeAoife Wafer after the Ireland vs Scotland game during the 2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But you have to keep looking forward. Moving to Harlequins<\/a>, having signed for them last summer, was a good distraction after the World Cup disappointment. It was a difficult decision to leave my contract in Ireland and the set-ups I\u2019d been part of for so long, but the girls at \u2019Quins really rallied around me. The first few weeks were tough because everything felt so new, but now, having made my debut for the club in December, London has started to really feel like home.<\/p>\n

Six-year-old Aoife said she wanted to be the best player in the world. It\u2019s probably something you can\u2019t tangibly achieve, but by chasing that standard I\u2019m striving to be the best version of myself. I want to help push Ireland on, to be part of days that will be remembered for years to come, and when it comes time for me to bow out, that my name will be up there with the Irish greats.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s Aoife Wafer: \u2018Ultimately, I want to be the best in the world\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In conversation with Muireann Duffy. This interview, part of a series about well-known people\u2019s lives and relationship with Ireland, was edited for clarity and length. Ireland play their first match in the Women\u2019s Six Nations 2026 against England on April 11th. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ripe old age of six was when the decision was made: I wanted to play rugby for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15964,631,16343,42,709,1454,43,3654,40,38,41,39,59268,123979],"class_list":["post-344806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aoife-wafer","tag-for-you","tag-gorey","tag-headlines","tag-magazine","tag-me-myself-and-ireland","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-women-in-sport","tag-women-s-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}