IRFU 'completely' support Wafer move

BBC News

02-07-2025

Irish Rugby's head of women's strategy Lynne Cantwell believes Aoife Wafer's move to Harlequins can help "drive standards" for the national team but says that ultimately there is a desire for their international stars to be home-based.Back row Wafer, who was named the 2025 Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship, will make the move to Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) after this year's World Cup, which will be held in England between 22 August and 27 September.The 22-year-old will join Test team-mates Sam Monaghan, Neve Jones, Edel McMahon and Cliodhna Moloney in England's premier domestic competition which, in contrast to the Ireland men's side, does not preclude them from international selection."I'm delighted for Aoife in a way," said Cantwell, who won 86 caps for Ireland and was part of the side that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2014."You've got an aspirational player while you still have flexibility within your contracting model, you just have the PWR across the water and you have an opportunity there to play with the best teams in the world after a World Cup year, I am completely in support of her. "What she will bring back is lots of IP [intellectual property] and drive standards nationally."Wafer was one of 37 players confirmed to be on a central Irish contract last year and home-based players currently play in the All-Ireland League for their club sides, in an inter-provincial championship and in the Celtic Challenge where two combined Irish sides take on equivalents from Wales and Scotland. "She'll obviously be missed from the two Celtic Challenge teams, but I understand it's still evolving," added Cantwell, who has been in her role since January after a spell in South Africa. "You want more of those players to be playing in the Celtic Challenge over the coming years."
'There's been too many blowouts in games'
The Celtic Challenge has been riddled with one-sided contests since its inception in 2023, raising concerns over its viability as a key piece of the Ireland squad's preparation for the Six Nations. The IRFU's performance director David Humphreys moved to London Irish when the professional men's game was in its infancy before returning to Ulster and winning the European Cup in 1999.He believes the period when he and other Test regulars plied their trade abroad gave the IRFU time to build a "sustainable, successful player-development pathway and competitive league" and hopes to see similar in the women's game."Our ambition is to have four really strong provinces competing in the Celtic Challenge," he said "When our players look at what's happened in the Celtic Challenge this year, there's been too many blowouts in games."PWR as it currently stands is more competitive. We'll never stand in the way of people who want to go and just get a different experience while we are building the women's game."Cantwell added that the "first step" to the goal of four professional provinces is slated for the 2026-27 season."That's the project that we're working on at the moment," she said."That won't look all bells and whistles. Even if we look to PWR, PWR started in 2017, it's now 2025 and it's still building and it still hasn't got fully contracted players by any stretch, but it has a daily training environment that you have 20 hours a week where players are training, have access to full-time coaches, S&C [strength and conditioning], and competitive games and that's what we're trying to build."We want to do it responsibly and sustainably - that's the two words we're working on."