Aoife Wafer makes a break during Ireland's 15-12 victory over Scotland at Kingspan Stadium in late April ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Aoife Wafer has enjoyed some of her best rugby experiences at Kingspan Stadium, and is relishing a return visit just a couple of weeks after winning the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship in Belfast.
Wafer made her seasonal debut for Leinster as a half-time replacement in their third round win over Ulster, and was back at Kingspan Stadium just a week later to help Tania Rosser’s side to overcome table toppers Munster and retain the Interpro title.
The Ballygarrett youngster scored a try in Leinster’s 27-7 final victory, bringing back memories of those joyous scenes at the home of Ulster Rugby back in April when Ireland edged out Scotland to qualify for the 2025 Rugby World Cup and secure a WXV1 berth.
Wafer was central to Ireland’s improved performances and results as they finished third in the 2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, hitting a rich vein of form that saw her voted onto the Women’s Six Nations Team of the Championship.
She was also nominated for the Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship award, and achieved an impressive awards double in May as the Rugby Players Ireland Women’s 15s Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year.
The 21-year-old back rower has been back in camp with the Ireland squad in recent days, as they prepare for Irish Rugby’s 150th Anniversary Test match against Australia at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday week (kick-off 2.30pm).
“Back at Kingspan next week is going to be something incredible. It’s been a while since we’ve played Australia so it will be class to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world,” Wafer told Irish Rugby TV.
“You heard it the last time we played Scotland here, it was a record crowd (of 7,468). To be able to get all of that in behind you and spur us on, like it came down to the wire against Scotland and it was such a good game.
“It just took that one lineout down in the bottom corner, and we kicked it out and the crowd just erupted. We’re really hoping for something like that again against Australia because it’s going to be a good one.
“Then to go over to Canada (for WXV1) to do the same against New Zealand, Canada, and the USA, so it’s the start of something really special this year for Ireland.”
Wafer recently got back on the pitch after an 11-week period on the sidelines due to a Lisfranc (midfoot) injury. Her return was carefully managed with a 25-minute cameo against Ulster, before getting almost an hour under her belt in the Interpro title decider.
Leinster’s reigning Young Player of the Year has been nicknamed ‘the Chiropractor’ by the province’s head coach Rosser, for being a ‘big crash ball tackler who hurts people in the contact area’.
That is a part of her game that Ireland boss Scott Bemand will hope comes to the fore as his team gear up to face four of the world’s top seven-ranked sides in the coming weeks, including New Zealand and Canada who are both in the top three.
Wafer was delighted to get some match minutes into her legs ahead of the international window, saying: “I hurt my foot here (in Belfast) when I played with Ireland against Scotland, so to be able to get back out on the pitch and just be running out with the girls is something really special.
“To be able to get back for an Interpro final and a game of this magnitude is absolutely phenomenal, so I’m just grateful to the whole team, and Tania for picking me again. It was definitely a special one to come back for.
“To be fair to Munster, they really put us through our paces and they made us work really hard. Our kick-off receipt probably wasn’t where it needed to be.
“Munster put us under huge pressure, but the girls just stuck to our guns. We just backed up what we were doing, and we just stuck to our system.”
With the one-year-to-go milestone already passed for the 2025 World Cup in England, Wafer is mindful of what a big impact the tournament could have on Irish Rugby’s next generation, given the matches are just across the water and will be broadcast live on free-to-air TV.
Her first full Six Nations campaign last season whetted the appetite for more – she made the most line breaks (6) and carry metres (417) of any forward in the Championship – and featuring at next year’s global showpiece would see her fulfil a childhood dream.
She was only six when she knew she wanted to play for Ireland, getting involved initially with the boys team at Gorey RFC. Her first experience with a girls team was at U-15 level when she was only 12. She was a scrum half back then as, in her own words, she was ‘really bossy’ and ‘really small’.
Her parents, Aidan and Samantha, made sure she knew there was a route to playing for her province and country by taking her to numerous Leinster and Ireland Women’s matches around the country.
Maz Reilly knows Wafer well having worked as a lineout coach under Rosser at Leinster, and she was recently installed as a World Rugby coach intern as part of Bemand’s newly-announced Ireland Women’s coaching team.
Wafer has long cherished an Ireland jersey given to her by the historic 2013 Grand Slam winners. The shirt bears Reilly’s signature, among others, and actually hangs above her bed.
The UCD physiotherapy student is hugely motivated to honour those who wore the green jersey before her, and ensure that young children watching Ireland’s current crop have female sporting role models to look up to.
She told the Leinster Rugby website: “For my 10th birthday, my mam got the Ireland head coach Philip Doyle, ‘Goose’, to have the Ireland team sign an Irish jersey for me. It was signed by the Grand Slam-winning team of 2013.
“It has been hanging above my bed ever since, I’m looking at it now. It has the signatures of Nora Stapleton, Niamh Briggs, Maz Reilly, Fiona Coghlan.
“Women who have been where I am now. I want to inspire the next generation. Just like they did for me.”
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