Talking Sport
Leading the Irish women’s touch rugby team into battle
A County Galway woman is to captain the first ever Ireland women’s open touch rugby team to take part in this weekend’s Home Nations International Tournament – also featuring England, Scotland and Wales – in DCU in Glasnevin, Dublin.
Although Carmel Mannion, a native of Aggard, Craughwell, has been playing tag rugby for some years, she only joined a friend in taking up the other code of touch last August. Since then, she has competed in the inaugural Galway Touch League, which has just finished for the Summer, and graduated onto the Irish squad.
Mannion is just one of a number of local based players who have made the panel of 15, with Renmore’s Nicola Corcoran and Cork native and adopted Galway woman Catriona de Paor the others. The side is coached by Greg Muller, the New Zealander who lives in Barna, and managed by another New Zealander, Mele Tuimauga-Kiripati.
In any event, when Ireland line out against old rivals England this Friday afternoon, it will be an historic occasion for touch rugby in this country. The game has only been played in Ireland since 2007 although the game originated in Australia almost half a century ago.
As for this part of the world, touch rugby made its formal introduction to the West with the foundation of the Galway League last year and it is a measure of just how far the game has come that Mannion and her colleagues have nailed down places in the international side.
Mannion says that, along with Coach Muller, a lot of the credit must go to Jenny McHale and Conor Slack who set up the league in Galway in 2012. “So, we have a league going every week and tonight (last Monday) is the last night of the league for the Summer and then we will start up again in September,” explains the 32-year-old national schoolteacher.
“The numbers are down during the Summer because a lot of people obviously play tag rugby out in Corinthians but, yeah, we had 10 teams playing in the Winter and Spring leagues. Not as many now. We have six to eight playing up to this point in the Summer.”
The Craughwell native, who lives in the City, outlines that touch rugby is not a million miles away from tag but that there are distinct differences. The obvious, of course, is the tag which she says can slow up the game in comparison to the touch.
“Also, in touch, everyone – there are six on the team – has to be back on side. It is a lot more strategic than tag I find. You always have to think about the move ahead and another move to come after that. It is all about the plays.
“Also, you can dive (for the try) and you don’t roll back the ball when it is a turnover – it is just back through the legs. It is a lot faster I find than tag anyway and if you ever saw Australia or New Zealand play on YouTube, you would get an idea of just how fast the game can be played.”
For Mannion’s part, she was always into running – “but not competitive or anything” – while in recent years she had taken up tag rugby. It was through the friends she made in this discipline that led her to touch.
“I would previously have played tag with Nicola (Corcoran) and she introduced it to me and then when I was away (in Australia), Nicola had been on a tag team with Catriona and that is how she got involved,” details Mannion.
“So, we all went to Dublin in January for trials and basically that is how we got on the team. So, it is great, particularly when you think that it hasn’t been set up a year. Added to that, the whole men’s 30s team, which will be also be competing in the Home Nations, is based in Galway.
“So, that is a massive achievement and, again, we are not even a year up and running. We have got a full-team (men’s 30s) and then we have six others in a national squad. That is very impressive.”
Indeed, the men’s 30s side is captained by Conor Slack while vice captain is Mannion’s boyfriend, Alan O’Riordan. Meanwhile, Nicola Corcoran’s brother Johnny is part of the men’s open outfit as is Dave Keogh.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
THE dramatic finale at the Sportsground on Saturday ought to have made the RTE Six One News sporting headlines, but there wasn’t a mention of Connacht’s extraordinary late heroics against Gloucester which keeps the province’s hopes of reaching the European Champions Cup quarter-finals alive.
Instead, the rugby spotlight was on Munster’s away defeat to champions Saracens. Later during the sports segment on the Six One News, Connacht’s never-say-die comeback was relegated to the last match of the Champions Cup wrap up. RTE, in their wisdom, believed that Munster’s 15-6 loss and Leinster’s routing of a makeshift Northampton on the same day were somehow more meritorious.
If Leinster or Munster had achieved what Connacht did in the latest round of European pool matches, can you imagine how gushing RTE’s coverage would have been? When a Tipperary man with a strong GAA background starts taking offence over Connacht not getting the coverage they are entitled to, it does give an insight into why rugby in the West feels hard done by in terms of national acclaim.
For all that, last Saturday was another thumping experience on College Road. With their European Championship knock-out ambitions on the line, it was victory or bust for Caolin Blade and company. But when Connacht trailed by 24-13 with less than six minutes remaining, it was impossible to see how they could salvage a result.
A pragmatic Gloucester already had the four-try bonus point in the bag. They may have trailed 10-7 at the break having faced the elements, but tries from Mark Atkinson (two) and captain Lewis Ludlow turned the game on its head. Connacht were remaining competitive but the breaks were going the way of a team they had never previously beaten.
The home fans in the crowd of 6,800 were understandably resigned to the worst. The yellow carding of Ludlow for a deliberate knock on meant Gloucester were reduced to 14 for the closing minutes, but nobody at the Sportsground thought much of it. Connacht were 11 points behind with time running out. They needed a miracle.
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Inside Track with John McIntyre
MICHEÁL Donoghue faces the biggest challenge of his management career so far after Galway’s latest subdued display of 2019 at Pearse Stadium last Sunday. A lot of the same personnel are still there from the team’s magnificent All-Ireland triumph of two years, but the form of a number of influential players has nose-dived since last September’s championship loss to Limerick.
After a late collapse against Waterford in the National League quarter-final, Galway had some questions to answer ahead of their Leinster campaign and not withstanding their significant injury problems over the past few months, the Tribesmen’s stock has continued to decline judging by this month’s displays against both Carlow and Wexford.
Though it’s far from a full-blown crisis and we must keep a sense of perspective, there’s no point being wise after the event. On the evidence of what have seen to date this summer, Galway are dicing with an unexpected premature exit from the championship unless the squad can rediscover the hunger, intensity and quality which characterised many of their performances in 2017.
The continued absence of Joe Canning – and it is a mighty blow – can’t explain everything. Sure, Daithí Burke, Joseph Cooney, Jonathan Glynn, Adrian Tuohey and John Hanbury, an important introduction against Wexford, remain short of competitive action, but as a package, Galway should still be better than this.
Failing to find the net against either Carlow or Wexford, together with the lack of fluency and sharpness, has some local alarm bells ringing, leaving the team management with plenty to ponder on ahead of Sunday week’s big collision with Kilkenny. Lose that and Galway’s season will hang on getting a result at Parnell Park – an unforgiving venue at the best of times.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon
WHAT was meant to be a few minutes of soundbite ahead of St. Thomas’ All-Ireland senior club hurling semi-final clash against Cushendall on Saturday has metamorphosed into a full-scale Talking Sport interview. Simply, because, Claude Geoghegan is an interesting guy.
For the past decade, Geoghegan has been the man behind the scenes and in his own inimitable way he has contributed just as much to St. Thomas’s success story as anybody else in Kilchreest and Peterswell. Perhaps, even more so.
As club secretary, he presided over St. Thomas’ historic county and All-Ireland club victories in the 2012/2013 season while, in the past three years, he has served as selector under managers John Burke and Kevin Lally, winning a county senior crown with each in 2016 and 2018 respectively. It is a proud record.
“I have held a few positions alright over the best part of a decade now — four or five years as secretary — and this is my third year involved now with the senior team. It is a way of life, I suppose, more than anything else,” begins the 31-year-old.
“When you are from a rural locality, it is what you are brought up with. It is what you know. If I wasn’t involved in the club in some capacity, I would feel I had a bit too much spare time on my hands. I would feel a bit odd without it, being honest.”
A history teacher at Presentation College, Athenry, Geoghegan explains his family are steeped in GAA tradition. His father Seamus hurled with the club before managing the intermediate team, as it was back then, while his older brother James has also done his duty as club secretary.
“Also, when the club amalgamated in 1968, my father was on the U14 team that won the county championship that year. We actually haven’t won the ‘A’ championship at U14 since. We have won plenty, but not that.”
Indeed, three SHC county titles in the last seven years would suggest that St. Thomas’ is a very special club but Geoghegan argues they are no different to any of the other clubs around. “Every other club is putting in the time that we are putting in. We are not special in any way in comparison to anyone else but we are incredibly fortunate to have a special group of players who have come together at one time.”
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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