Women’s rugby on the rise in Ballinrobe as the senior team completes first season

WOMEN’S rugby has been making huge strides recently at Ballinrobe Rugby Football Club. The revived senior team has just completed their first full season. It didn’t end with silverware but instead brought about fantastic memories to cherish. 

After lying dormant for 25 years, the senior ladies’ team has been resuscitated by Director of Rugby Brendan Flanagan and Jill O’Malley, who summed up the season: “For us to be able to compete against more established clubs was a massive achievement in itself. We held our own.”

For three years, Jill was team manager for the Connacht Senior Women’s Team and currently she is a Club Development Officer for the province. For her, the whole point about playing rugby is community.

O’Malley, originally from Cong, coaches the Ballinrobe senior ladies. She always has the players stop on their way home from an away game and regroup in a pub. They stop and meet, sit down and have a chat after the game. O’Malley wants to make sure that nobody just goes straight home.

It's a reflection of the spirit of rugby that Jill grew up with. Her father Brian O’Loughlin played in the UK with London Irish for six years. Back then the whole weekend would be about rugby, as Jill remembers:

“In the late 80s and 90s, it was all very much about a family and fun environment. The clubs had bars, and people used to go there after the game. That was my major draw to it.”

No wonder, when the family moved back to Mayo that Jill wanted to play rugby herself. 

But it was a short-lived episode. The Ballinrobe team disbanded in 1999 and many years passed before girls rugby was re-started in the club. In 2020 the first training sessions were held to form a seniors women’s team. However, Covid then hit and it took a while to regather the momentum, as the whole project was still very much in an embryonic state.

Now, Ballinrobe RFC boasts the full range of age grades for girls up to the senior women which shows the sustainable growth in this sector. 

HADN’T A CLUE

Chloe Gibbons only started playing in Ballinrobe a year ago, reflecting a globally growing female side of rugby:

“I hadn't a clue how to play, not a clue. I knew a little bit from watching rugby and stuff like that, but I had no idea of the names of positions or anything like that. I would have played a bit of football. I knew the ball had to go backwards in rugby, but that was about it. Then, as time went on we were quick to learn.” 

After a few training sessions, the coaches came up to Chloe and told her that they would play her in the backs. This caused a bit of confusion for her initially, as backs in rugby are totally different to the ones in Gaelic football. 

In rugby, a team pretty much attacks and defends together, and roles are defined differently. But according to Chloe, the players quickly learned their lessons and she now togs out in the centre position and it has grown on her:

“I feel you're really in the midst of the plays. You’re more involved in the game. I find that when I’m out on the wing or in the full back position, you can go for long periods of time without touching the ball or getting involved at all.”

It was a tough first full season for Ballinrobe in the Connacht Senior Women’s League, but they got two wins out of eight games and only finished below local rivals Westport due to scoring difference. In the Connacht Plate competition, the women in black and white almost made it to the final, losing out by the narrowest of margins, 19-20 against OLBC/Corinthians.

Certainly, there is no lack of commitment from the players, as Chloe herself lives and works in Galway City, but swapping the Ballinrobe jersey for a local team in Galway is out of the question. And she isn’t alone in that regard as some Ballinrobe players are Dublin-based and still come down on a Friday night for training.

“We are putting Ballinrobe on the map from a women’s perspective,” Chloe says and with a senior team now establishing itself, young, passionate players have a goal in front of them, a team to look up to.

“I wanted my kids to have the opportunity to play,” Jill O’Malley says, when asked about her motivation to take up a coaching role for the women’s team. 

With a full transition from youth to senior rugby now possible, the foundations are laid for further growth of the game in Ballinrobe. Currently, there are 28 players on the senior squad, and who knows, the numbers might get another boost later this year. The Ballinrobe team will travel to Brighton to witness Ireland play New Zealand at the World Cup. And events like that create stories and memories for a lifetime that can inspire the next generation of players. The future of female rugby in Ballinrobe looks very bright indeed.