Munster’s ‘All Together’ Approach Helping Finn To Flourish

Caitriona Finn has gone from captaining the Ireland Under-18 Women’s Sevens team to making her senior debut for the Munster Women in the space of six weeks.

Following the blooding of six new caps in Munster’s 29-22 bonus point win over Ulster, Finn joined them in stepping up for her senior bow last Saturday against reigning Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial champions Leinster.

The Tipperary youngster, who only turned 18 in June, was delighted to play her part in the five-try 32-21 victory over Leinster at Virgin Media Park. She was sprung from the bench for the final 30 minutes.

Asked how she felt afterwards, the out-half/centre told the province’s website: “Definitely nerves coming into it. Since I was named on the bench, since Wednesday, there were kind of just nerves slowly building up.

“On the bench with the girls, we were showing how shaky our hands were! But, actually when I got on the pitch, it felt pretty normal. Just kind of like another game with the girls. It was good.”

In terms of players graduating to senior rugby, Finn is one of the most experienced age-grade players in Ireland having played a year or two young after being enrolled in the IRFU’s WNTS (Women’s National Talent Squad) programme in 2022.

That summer she had just finished transition year at St. Mary’s Secondary School in Nenagh, and barely blown out the candles on her 16th birthday cake, when she won a European bronze medal with the Ireland U-18 Women’s Sevens side in Prague.

Notably, of that 12-player squad coached by Katie Fitzhenry in 2022, nine have already played senior Interprovincial rugby, with five of them – Finn, Tara O’Neill, Hannah Clarke, Molly Boote, and Robyn O’Connor – making their debuts this month.

The other three players are Katie Corrigan, who starred this year with three tries during her debut Women’s Six Nations campaign, Amy Larn, who is fresh from becoming an Olympian with the senior Sevens team, and Eva Sterritt, who captained the Ireland Universities Women’s Sevens squad earlier this summer.

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With the help of coaches from clubs and schools in nurturing their talent, it shows the value of the WNTS programme, which was boosted by eight full-time WNTS Pathways staff last year, in developing and supporting these potential future stars and best-equipping them for the demands of elite level rugby.

The throughput of players via a sustainable talent identification network has been one of the big success stories of the female player development pathways, led by IRFU Head of Women’s Performance and Pathways, Gillian McDarby, and former Ireland international Fitzhenry, the IRFU WNTS and Talent ID Manager.

Of the initial 13 players who were brought into camp with the WNTS in early 2022, under the tutelage of Fitzhenry and Neill Alcorn, five have earned either 15s or Sevens international caps, including 2024 Olympian Alanna Fitzpatrick, and Aoife Dalton and Dannah O’Brien, who already have 29 Test caps between them.

Ten of those players are involved in the current Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship, and five took part in the inaugural Six Nations Women’s Summer Series with the Ireland Under-20 squad, with 20-year-old prop Sophie Barrett receiving the MVP accolade.

Pushing on to play for the Ireland U-20s will be one of the targets for Finn, who has had a great grounding these last few years with a couple of seasons with the Munster U-18s, two U-18 Six Nations Festivals with Ireland, and three Rugby Europe Sevens Championships, the last of which saw her captain her country in Strasbourg last month.

A skilful half-back with a clever rugby brain and a strong left boot, she first played rugby at the age of five at Nenagh Ormond RFC, and moved to a girls team later on with UL Bohemian. She also played underage rugby with Ballina-Killaloe RFC.

A strong sense of unity helped Munster to stave off Leinster’s push for a potential match-winning try, with just six points separating the teams (27-21) during the closing stages of the second round clash.

As the Garrykennedy native explained, the home crowd did their bit in lifting Fiona Hayes’ Reds on their way to a terrific clinching score from Alana McInerney, inside the final two minutes.

“What we were focusing going into this was just ‘all together’, like I have your back, you have my back, all close and connected,” acknowledged Finn.

“So, I think we really just showed it there, especially when we were under pressure, just how much we have trust in each other, and how we have each other’s back.

“When we were up here close to their try-line, you could just hear the whole crowd shouting for us. It was just nice because the forwards were doing the dirty work, so you just had a second to take it in.

“It was savage, they drove us on so much. So many of those big tackles, and tries were all scored, because they gave us that energy.”

To make her senior debut for Munster on home soil in front of her family and friends, and to mark it with a result that sent them through to the Championship final on August 31, made it all the more memorable.

Roll back just two years, and Finn was co-captain of the Munster U-18 Women’s team that hosted Leinster at the Cork venue. She recalled that four of current senior squad – Ellen Boylan, Lucia Linn, Kate Flannery, and Beth Buttimer – were also part of that U-18 group.

“It’s savage (to get my first cap). This has been my dream for I don’t know how long. It’s just really nice to kind of show my parents that all the work and driving that they put into me paid off a little bit!

“There’s three girls, or actually more than three, that I remember playing with against Leinster here (with the U-18s) before the Women played just a couple of years ago. It’s really nice just to see everyone coming up to this level and getting a go,” she added.