{"id":619105,"date":"2026-09-09T08:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619105\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:30:18","slug":"inspiration-is-all-around-as-ireland-prepare-for-wxv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619105\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Inspiration is all around’ as Ireland prepare for WXV"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Ireland women’s rugby squad reconvene for their upcoming test window of WXV Global Series games, Fiona Tuite-O’Sullivan says she feels inspired by the trailblazers across Irish women’s sport, especially over the past summer.<\/p>\n

From Kate O’Connor<\/a> and Rhasidat Adeleke’s<\/a> athletics prowess to Ellen Walshe and Mona McSharry<\/a> in the pool, not forgetting Katie Taylor’s grand farewell<\/a>; it has been a great summer to bleed green. And the Ireland forward is conscious of the transcending impact it has across sports.<\/p>\n

“It’s all around, literally inspiration is all around us now”, she told RT\u00c9 Sport.<\/p>\n

“Ireland are thriving in women’s sport, and it’s unbelievable to see. We’re literally the best in the world in so many aspects and so many different games.<\/p>\n

“So hopefully we can inspire girls and young lads and even older people as well, and we can be their heroes and we can get some silverware to inspire them as well.”<\/p>\n

\"5
\n‘She’s a hero for so many of us’ – Tuite-O’Sullivan paid tribute to Katie Taylor<\/p>\n

The rugby side twice broke their own home attendance record during the 2026 Six Nations, including drawing in a crowd of 31,294 to the Aviva Stadium<\/a> for their final fixture, a landslide victory over Scotland in round five.<\/p>\n

Yet, for Tuite-O’Sullivan, she admits the Abbottstown-based squad are not immune to being caught up in the hype of others, especially the Katie Taylor fever in recent weeks, despite their own success. The lock was speaking prior to the fight, and was full of admiration for the Bray legend.<\/p>\n

“We’ve actually been talking about it over dinner the past couple of nights, and it’s incredibly exciting,” she confessed.<\/p>\n

“She’s a hero for so many of us. We’re not boxers, but she has paved the way for so many of us in terms of professionalism, just being out in the limelight.<\/p>\n

“Like, what an athlete, what a hero to all of us. She’s an Irish icon and probably one of our best sporting athletes of all time, and I don’t know if that will be beaten anytime soon.<\/p>\n

“So I’m so excited for the fight. I think it’ll be incredible, and even all the videos and stuff that are coming out now, it’s so emotional watching it and, yeah, we’re absolutely buzzing.”<\/p>\n

\"Ireland
\nIreland were 54-5 winners over Scotland in the Aviva Stadium return<\/p>\n

Marquee events like Croke Park on 5 September have a way of inspiring a nation, and having had their own taste of the growing appetites, the Ulster forward is keen to return to Lansdowne Road whenever the IRFU presents the opportunity.<\/p>\n

“That sets the standard for us now, we don’t drop below that,” she said at an event at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery last week.<\/p>\n

“It’s not going to be possible every single game, I understand, to fill that, but the amount of work that went into that was class. All the work from the IRFU, from the Aviva, from all of our sponsors, everyone was so good.<\/p>\n

“But that sets the bar now. Our goal is to only go up and up from that, and the goal is, yeah, let’s sell out the Aviva, let’s do it.<\/p>\n

“I think if we bring England or France, two super teams, great game, and I’d like to bring both, but we’ll see how we go. But we are pushing, we’re doing all our work in the background.”<\/p>\n

However exciting recent weeks have been on the sidelines, or on the field of play, all that must be parked if Ireland are to enjoy a successful start to their WXV Global Series campaign, in which Scott Bemand’s squad will take on the USA and Japan at home, before two tests down in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"24
\nIreland and Japan faced off at last year’s Rugby World Cup<\/p>\n

Tuite-O’Sullivan admitted that herself, of Ulster allegiance, and the Munster women have a pep in their step following the interprovincial series, but now it’s all eyes on the States and the tantalising prospect of a first home game in Tallaght Stadium, where the women’s soccer team have had great success of their own.<\/p>\n

“It’s just so good to be bringing it to different stadiums and getting to play in Dublin is really nice for me. I really, really like it”, she said.<\/p>\n

“We’re going after five wins altogether and the three at home would mean that we’re on the trot there with six wins in a row at home, which would be pretty special.<\/p>\n

“So, yeah, really excited for those games to come and get to play Japan as well. We haven’t played them so recently.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Ireland women’s rugby squad reconvene for their upcoming test window of WXV Global Series games, Fiona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-619105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619105","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=619105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}