Hughes finally finding her feet at highest level
Daire Walsh
She is now firmly established as first-choice scrum-half under Adam Griggs, but Ireland women’s star Ailsa Hughes admits it took a while to find her feet in the international arena.
After featuring in victories over Scotland and Italy during the 2017 Six Nations, Hughes was subsequently omitted from the Irish squad for their World Cup campaign in Dublin and Belfast.
With vocal performers like Larissa Muldoon and Nicole Cronin ahead of her in the pecking order, the Offaly native realised something had to change.
“Larissa Muldoon was in there, Nicole [Cronin] is in there. They’re boisterous players, they’re boisterous people. You’re trying to find your feet. A nine has to be loud anyway, but when you’re going into that set-up with them already in there, it’s hard enough to find your feet and find out what type of player you want to be. It took a little while,” Hughes explained.
“I suppose that’s where I had to go away after not being selected for the World Cup. To get away and actually work on that. That was a huge mental thing that I had to work on. I suppose in the meantime then, it’s just a matter of trying to build yourself into it.”
An All-Ireland intermediate camogie champion with the Faithful County back in 2010, Hughes previously lined out for Tullamore before eventually switching to Railway Union on Dublin’s southside.
For tomorrow afternoon’s Test encounter with the USA at Energia Park (1pm kick-off), she will be joined at half-back by club-mate Nikki Caughey – whose last start for Ireland was against Canada in November 2016.
“I’m really lucky that we’ve Nikki. I’ve played with Nikki the last couple of years. It’s nice to have your nine and ten being able to not only work on stuff at club level, but then be able to try and put it into international and interprovincial this year [with Leinster].”
Although she progressed to the national team after taking up rugby as an adult, Hughes is now introducing a younger generation to the game. Newly employed by Leinster as a Club Community Rugby Officer (CCRO) in the Westmanstown area, she has noticed a passion for the sport amongst young girls.
“That only started there in September. It’s really nice. It’s different. Basically, I’m in and out to schools pretty much. I’m into primary schools and secondary schools. It’s fantastic,” Hughes said.
“With a name like Ailsa, everyone thinks I’m from Frozen. That’s a good way to get the kids starting! It’s really good and even from a selfish point of view, I’m in with boys and girls, but from that level you can see those girls who are good and never picked up a rugby ball before. But you can see that they can play. It’s nice to be able to distill that in them and hopefully get them into clubs and get playing from a younger age.”