Philip Doyle, who led Ireland to the Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam as head coach in 2013, has died aged 61.<\/p>\n
He had two spells in the role, leading the side for three years after being appointed as Kevin West’s successor in 2003 before returning in 2010.<\/p>\n
Doyle enjoyed success in the second stint as he steered Ireland to a first Six Nations Grand Slam in 2013, a first win over New Zealand and a fourth-placed finish at the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n
He stood down after that tournament and went on to take over as Scotland women’s boss in 2019, but left that role a year later due to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
He also had spells coaching Blackrock College women’s team and Ulster Rugby’s women’s team.<\/p>\n
Leading tributes, Blackrock College said there was “profound sadness” and described Doyle, affectionately known as ‘Goose’, as “the most influential coach in the history of women’s rugby”.<\/p>\n
The club added: “At Blackrock, Goose was far more than a list of achievements. He was a mentor, a friend, a storyteller, and a constant source of encouragement.<\/p>\n
“He cared deeply about the people he coached. He gave players confidence, challenged them to be better, and reminded everyone around him why rugby is such a special game.”<\/p>\n
“Few people have done more to advance the women’s game in Ireland and fewer still have done it with such charisma, warmth, humility and generosity of spirit.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philip Doyle, who led Ireland to the Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam as head coach in 2013, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-520800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520800","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=520800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}