Wafer Riding ‘Green Wave’ Into 2025 After ‘Crazy Year’

For a player that knows approximately how many days there were between her first and second Ireland caps, Aoife Wafer is clearly determined to make up for lost time in the green jersey.

Closing out 2024 as the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Women’s 15s Player of the Year, Wafer reflected on a ‘crazy year’ which saw her start all nine Tests, contributing six tries and winning three player-of-the-match awards.

Her explosive ball carries, whether off the back of a scrum or in the loose, have been a real highlight of Ireland’s play, while she was the joint-top breakdown stealer, and one of the leading tacklers and offloaders, at the recent WX1 tournament.

“It started off by getting my first start versus France (in the opening round of the Six Nations) after working my way back from a few injuries, working back into the team and trying to get back involved,” explained Wafer.

“So kickstarting a good campaign with Ireland in France, it was the start of a growth for this team over the last year.

“We worked our way through the Six Nations Championship and coming third and qualifying for next year’s Rugby World Cup, then straight into WXV1.

“WXV1 was, I’d say, out of the blue for other people but we always believed we could get those results. We were always fairly certain that if we followed our steps and what we wanted to do, that results would follow that.”

A debutant for Ireland at just 19, Wafer’s international breakthrough was unfortunately delayed by a ruptured hamstring, amid other setbacks, which led to a gap of some ‘560 days’ before winning her second cap against Spain in WXV3 last year.

Comfortable in all three positions in the back row, the Ballygarrett youngster has been at the forefront of Ireland’s improved performances under Scott Bemand. She was a Guinness Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship nominee, and made the Team of the Championship.

The 21-year-old went on to star in September’s unforgettable WXV1 win over New Zealand. Her two-try display led to her latest player-of-the-match honour, and she is licking her lips at the prospect of facing the Black Ferns again as pool opponents at the 2025 World Cup.

“Beating the Black Ferns is a highlight for me in my career, I’d say, for the rest of my life and it’s going to be a day that I look back on very fondly,” she recalled of the 29-27 bonus point victory in Vancouver.

“We came away from that Canadian game and we were a little bit disappointed, but getting another win in WXV1 against the USA was pretty special.

It was crazy. The week coming up into it we had so much clarity as a team, what we needed to do and what we needed to execute to be able to beat the current World champions.

“We knew going into it that we had to be on it. If anyone was a step off of it then it just wasn’t going to happen. There were messages coming from home and I know all the girls that are home currently rehabbing or just at home, they were all behind us.

“We could feel that kind of green wave coming with us and we knew once that Haka started, once we marched forward, that was it and everyone was on it.”

She added: “I suppose then once kick-off happened and we just knew what the task was, we executed on the night so, yes, it was crazy.

“Even thinking back to it, I just can’t believe it has happened, like, growing up that was always something I wanted to do, to face the Haka.

“Like you go into schools, I do a bit of coaching myself, and that is the number one question that kids ask, ‘what is it like to face the Haka?’, and sure at the time there were only two people on the team who could answer that.

“To say we are going into a World Cup now having beaten the Black Ferns, having faced the Haka, having done all of those things we have experience in now, so I guess it makes for a tasty fixture now for the 2025 World Cup.”

Wafer believes the best is yet to come from Bemand’s side heading into a huge year for the team, with France and England to be hosted in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations before the World Cup, across the Irish Sea, takes centre stage next August and September.

WXV1 showed that they can compete with and beat some of the world’s leading teams, and now it is about doing that on a more consistent basis, as they set their targets for the upcoming Six Nations, which begins in Belfast against France on Saturday, March 22, and the World Cup.

As the Blackrock College and Leinster star’s first international start came against the French earlier this year, she cannot wait to lock horns again with les Bleues at Kingspan Stadium, with a steely focus on keeping both her and Ireland’s graph on an upward curve.

“I think there’s still a lot more to come from this team and I think everybody is desperate to be part of a successful Irish team and the next step in that is the Six Nations,” she acknowledged. “But there’s another big goal at the end of 2025 and that’s what we’re building towards.

“I’m not a finished product and I don’t think I ever will be, which is the good thing. There are areas of my game that I’m not currently happy with.

“I’m looking to get better every day so hopefully in the coming years, if I get another opportunity to pull on a green jersey, I will be able to be better for the team and be better for the country.

“Personally, I want to be one of the best in the world and I still have a lot of work to do to be that, so yeah, I just have to keep growing as a person and a player, to keep being curious and asking questions and being vulnerable and seeing my ranking improve and just get back to the graft.”