DESPITE ONLY being five caps into her international career, 21-year-old flanker Aoife Wafer is fast establishing herself as a key figure within the Ireland women’s rugby team.

After two previous outings off the bench, the Wexford native was handed her first test start by head coach Scott Bemand on the opening weekend of this year’s Six Nations Championship.

After crossing over the whitewash in that 38-17 reversal to France in Le Mans, Wafer was awarded Six Nations Try of the Round for her 14th-minute effort in last weekend’s bonus point win over Wales in Cork.

Additionally, having previously been honoured for a stellar display in a narrow loss to Italy at the RDS, her performance at Musgrave Park seven days ago also led to her being named Six Nations Player of the Round for a second successive time.

These are impressive accolades for someone so young, but as she explained at a press conference in the IRFU’s High-Performance Centre on Tuesday, Wafer has had an eventful journey up to this point in her career.

“I would have started when I was about six with Gorey RFC. I started with the boys team. It was actually funny because my two older brothers made a deal with my Mam that they could start rugby if they finished all their swimming lessons. So they started rugby and I of course, was left in the clubhouse, and I just wanted to get stuck in!” Wafer said.

“Mam always said that I was bit of a pest and I just kept arguing with her basically that I wanted to be out with the boys and I wanted to play. So one day she let me go out, so I didn’t really look back since then.

“Played from six to 12 years old with the boys and unfortunately girls can’t play with boys after that age group, so it was a thing of either I play with U15 girls at the time or I move to the U13 boys.”

Following some consultation, she ultimately opted to go for the former option and it was then that she first came into contact with one of her future international colleagues.

“That’s when I would have played with the likes of Natasja Behan. She would have been around 15 and I was 12. I was a scrum-half because I was really bossy and I was really small. I was stuck in scrum-half and eventually, then I went for south-east trials, which are a regional group with Leinster. I was 15 playing on the U18s team.

“I think I’d moved to Enniscorthy by this stage. I’d be playing with Katie Whelan, who’s also on the [Ireland] squad. Then Covid struck and got back eventually for post-Covid, Leinster U18s. I was part of the first interprovincial U18 Leinster-winning team.”

The Ballygarrett woman progressed from there and was eventually awarded a sevens contract by the IRFU after completing her Leaving Certificate examinations.

However, Wafer was later named in the Six Nations squad by then-Ireland 15s head coach Greg McWilliams for the 2022 edition of the tournament and — at just 19 years of age — she made her international bow as a 59th-minute replacement in a third-round showdown against Italy at Musgrave Park in Cork on 10 April.

This was a special weekend for the Wafer family as Aoife’s sister Orla made her first appearance for the Ireland U18s against France in Edinburgh the previous day.

Even though the games were taking place in different countries, Aoife and Orla’s mother Samantha ensured she didn’t miss a second of their respective debuts.

“She flew over to see her game and then back to see my game. Then back out to see Orla’s second game! She was a bit of a yo-yo between the two countries, so it was unbelievably special.”

Although she sat out the final few minutes of the Wales game after picking up a knock, Wafer has once again been selected alongside Edel McMahon and Brittany Hogan in the back-row for this afternoon’s tantalising showdown against England in Twickenham Stadium.

As well as playing in front of 45,000 plus spectators at the southwest London venue, Wafer and her Irish team-mates will be coming face-to-face with a side that have won their last 27 games in the Women’s Six Nations — dating back to the final round of the 2018 Championship.

The fact that five members of Ireland’s match day squad currently ply their trades at English clubs will be a welcome help for Wafer, but she has been doing plenty of work behind the scenes to familiarise herself with the Red Roses.

“For those of us who haven’t played in the Prem or haven’t played with these English girls, we do our homework too. We’ve watched back a lot of footage and seen certain trends and things that they like to do,” Wafer added.

“We acknowledge everything they can do and the power that they bring, but we also see our threats and we scored a variety of different tries at the weekend. That has really given us a pep in our step and a bit of confidence in our abilities as well. That we can really execute at that level as well.”

Daire Walsh