"A lot of those girls that were on that team," says Aoife Wafer of her old U18s side, "are the ones with Ireland, at the minute, and driving them on to be successful."
A couple of months back, I was chatting with Leinster and Ireland flanker, Erin King about the WXV 1 victories over New Zealand and the USA. During those games, King, Wafer and Dannah O'Brien all played huge roles in securing famous wins.
King pointed out that she not only played underage, at Leinster, with Wafer and O'Brien, but a host of other young talents. Aoife Dalton, Alanna Fitzpatrick, Leah Tarpey, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Katie Whelan and Ruth Campbell were all teammates, as was current Ulster outhalf, Abby Moyles.
“We won an inter-pro title when we were all together first,” King recalled. “Looking back now, you can see why. That team was stacked.”
“To then beat a New Zealand team that are world champions with girls that I have been playing with since I was 15 was quite surreal,” she adds. “It was very different to those cold days, training in the back arse of nowhere. Now we’re playing on the world stage. It was one of the best days.”
Not long after her two-try salvo in Ireland's tough defeat to France, at Ravenhill, Wafer spoke about finishing the Six Nations on a winning run, and that incredible Leinster U18s side.
Leinster captain Aoife Wafer with the PwC U18 Women's Interprovincial Championship trophy, back in 2021. (Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile)
Aoife Wafer on her Leinster U18s team
At the age of only 16, back in 2019, Aoife Wafer was lining out for the Leinster U18s and making her presence known. That Leinster side won their first two inter-pros but lost out on the title to Connacht.
Two years later, the Wexford native was back and captaining Leinster U18s as they swept to an emphatic title win. They defeated Connacht 24-0, blitzed Ulster 54-0 and wrapped up the championship by putting Munster in a blender for a 54-7 win. All told, they scored 132 points (including 19 tries) and conceded only one.
Wafer scored three tries en-route to that title win, including two in the final match, against Munster. The 22-year-old comments:
That team was crazy. That was the side that won the interprovincial for the first time, at Under 18s, for Leinster. I remember having conversations with my parents, about it, and there are more than 15 girls from that side who are either capped by Leinster, at 15s, or have international honours, at either Sevens or 15s.
"A lot of those girls that were on that team are the ones with Ireland, at the minute, and driving them on to be successful. So, you have the likes of Dannah, Aoife, Erin, Ruth, myself. All those people. We were all growing up, playing rugby together, or against each other.
"We definitely knew we were on to something good as we were hammering all the other provinces," Wafer adds. "It was like, 'We've a pretty good team, here'. It wasn't until everyone started getting call-ups for Ireland that it confirmed that, jeez, we really had something special. You look back now, at that list of names that played, and there is no other team that has come since that has had that amount of internationals, and I don't think there will be another for a long time."
Aoife Wafer has been unveiled as Energia’s newest brand ambassador, further enhancing their commitment to powering the future of Irish rugby. (Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady)
Aoife Wafer focused on Italy game
Scott Bemand has instilled in this Ireland Women's team the desire to mix it with the best side's in world rugby.
Ireland started making tracks in the right direction, last year, when they finished third in the Six Nations standings. They ended up second in WXV 1 and entered this year's Six Nations looking to keep up that positive momentum.
Defeat to a strong France side was not what Ireland wanted, but they showed enough in that game to put all the other teams on notice. Had Ireland's goal-kicking been better, and had they cut down on handling errors, they may have secured their first win over the French since 2017.
Next on the horizon are Italy, and that is the sole focus of Aoife Wafer and her teammates. "For the minute, all we are looking at is this Italy game, and giving it our all," she says.
SEE ALSO: 5 Takeaways From Ireland’s Heartbreaking Loss to France in Six Nations Opener
