It is nearly eight years since I was first welcomed into the Ireland Women’s Sevens programme as an enthusiastic, wide-eyed teenager. On a personal level, it has proved to be immensely rewarding time on and off the pitch. As players, we were, and are, a small, close-knit, albeit welcoming community.
Sevens typically polarises opinion; you either love it or you are too uptight about life. I am only half joking. We continue to do our best to try to change that outlook or sentiment and will get another opportunity this weekend when we compete in the Sevens World Cup in Cape Town.
The youngest of six children, born to the amazing Michael and Angela, sport provided an important outlet for my energy. I played GAA from the age of eight with Clanna Gael Fontenoy. At various stages there were four Flood girls on that team that won the Dublin Intermediate title in 2010. I also played soccer for Cambridge girls.
My formal introduction to rugby came in sixth year in school. Railway Union sent a coach to run a Sevens team and we played against other schools. I loved it because it allowed me to showcase the skills I had accumulated from other sports.
My sister Kim was the elite sporting trailblazer in the family, going on to play for Ireland, and, like in most ways, I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I remember writing an essay in school about my family and personality traits that we shared. It is fair to say that the competitive gene is front and centre in the Flood DNA; it has made for some energetic in-house tussles over the years.
I was selected for the Ireland Under-18 Sevens team and from there graduated to the senior side. It has been quite the journey, from modest beginnings results-wise to more recent success. Hardship is a glue that bonds the best friendships.
Through the years the Ireland Sevens team has evolved from a collection of players with diverse sporting backgrounds in GAA, hockey, and athletics to the newbies who have grown up playing rugby. The ‘kiddos,’ the fresh-faced teens who have joined the squad in the last 12 months, arrive as fully-formed rugby players with a high IQ for the game.
The squad is made up of several generations, the kids, born in the 2000s, what we like to refer to as the “forgotten or middle children,” (born 1997-1999) and finally ‘The Crusty Dustys,’ the collective noun for those who seem to have been around forever. It takes us the longest to blow away the cobwebs in the morning.
Lucy Mulhall and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, affectionately known as Leigh because it takes too long to address her by her full title (Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe World Series leading try scorer and World Series Dream team member) are the two people who have been with me every step of the journey from getting into the World Series in 2015 and initially trying to stave off relegation.
We tried and failed to qualify for two Olympics, but we have channelled the disappointment to make the group stronger, more resilient, and ultimately better players reflected in winning silver and bronze medals in the World Series.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Lucy and Leigh will appreciate that they are world class individuals as well as great team-mates and rugby players; the three of us are known as the ‘Crustys’.
For those with a limited knowledge of Sevens rugby it is perhaps easiest to describe it by numbers. The Women’s Sevens World Series runs eight tournaments in eight different locations globally throughout the season. The world’s 12 best teams play six games over two or three days depending on the event, in 14-minute matches with seven players on the pitch; high stakes, short breaks, the game is relentless but entertaining to watch and exhausting to play.
This week we are playing in the World Cup, arguably the most prestigious tournament outside the Olympics. It’s a slightly different format, 16 teams in a knockout competition. If you keep winning you progress into the top eight, top four, final etc. Losing brings you on a different journey to a final ranking position. It is four matches to win a World Cup.
We have been in South Africa for nearly two weeks, prepping in Stellenbosch, playing training matches against some of our rivals before moving into Cape Town. All the teams are housed in the same hotel, where we were treated to a formal welcome of drums and singing from the staff.
Away from the pitch you must be able to manage down time and roommates play an important role. Eve Higgins is my usual cellmate. We are the best of friends but that doesn’t stop us bickering. You need to be able to vent. I stole her laptop to write this column.
We were treated to a safari, up early and out the door, a 90-minute drive and the thrill of seeing four of the Big Five. I am not going to lie, hearing lions roar sent shivers down the spine. Another thing we did as a group was head to the beach after training on Tuesday for a recovery session in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was chilly, getting in, staying in, and getting out with the waves bashing us to bits but we emerged from our salt water baptism fresh-faced.
At this point in a week the excitement levels begin to rise as the time frame condenses to Friday’s opening match against Brazil. Head coach Aiden McNulty and Orla Curran (S&C) are the prime drivers in getting us mentally and physically attuned, something I hope that you will be able to see for yourselves live on RTÉ.
Anyway, short and sweet for the first column, some clichés, but what’s a girl to do without them? My ambition is to provide an insight into women’s rugby, not just the Instagram version, and to offer a chance to peek behind the headlines.
Stacey Flood will write an occasional column for The Irish Times where you will be able to follow her journey through the World Sevens Series and Six Nations Championship.
