King Named Breakthrough Player Of The Year As Six Irish Players Named In Dream Teams

Erin King was named Women’s Breakthrough Player of the Year at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco tonight. Six Irish players made the Dream Teams in 7s and 15s.

King, who has been a stalwart of the Ireland Women’s 7s side and was part of Team Ireland at the Olympics in Paris, made her 15s debut in the IRFU 150 Celebration match against Australia in September, beating three defenders in ten carries when she came on as a replacement.

Her next game was as a replacement in the WXV1 victory over the Black Ferns which she marked with her first and second tries at this level. The latter levelling the score before Dannah O’Brien kicked the conversion for a famous win.

Another player to make a huge impact at WXV1 was King’s team mate and fellow backrower Aoife Wafer who has been named in the Women’s Dream Team, to add to Guinness Rugby Writers Women’s Player of the Year award she picked up last week.

Wafer started in all nine test matches in 2024, scoring six tries and picking up three Player of the Match awards along the way.

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.

Caelan Doris, who missed out on the Men’s Player of the Year gong to South Africa’s Pieter Steph du Toit, is one of four Irish players named in the Men’s Dream Team. He is joined in the pack by Tadhg Beirne while Jamison Gibson Park and James Lowe were also picked in the illustrious team.

Men’s Sevens star Terry Kennedy was again selected in the Dream Team, the former Player of the Year winner and Top Try Scorer had another incredible year that included coming back from a sabbatical to help steer Ireland to second place on the HSBC SVNS World Series and play at his second Olympic Games.