Monaghan helps Ireland to big win on historic trip
In a stadium a long, long way from her native Navan lock-forward Sam Monaghan was involved in helping Ireland carve out an historic victory over Japan this morning.
Monaghan is part of the first Irish ladies rugby team to embark on a summer tour of Japan and she was involved for most of the game in the Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi City Shizuoka which the visitors won 57-22.
The Irish didn't make the best of starts conceding the opening 15 points of the game before they got on the scoreboard with a try from Neve Jones who went on to score a hat-trick of touchdowns over the course of the 80 minutes.
By half-time the Irish led 19-15 with the help of further tries from Aoife Doyle and Aoife Dalton before pushing on to win with plenty to spare. Maebh Deely, Chloe Pearse, Molly Scuffil McCabe and Emma Hooban also went over for tries while Dannah O'Brien scored from a host of conversions.
Monaghan was in the thick of that action helping the girls in green create a dominance in the scrum which proved to be a platform for success. The Irish were particularly good off the rolling maul and they scored a number of tries with that strategic ploy.
Monaghan played Gaelic football as a youngster and was part of the Meath u-16 team that won the All-Ireland in 2009 under Eamonn Murray who, of course, went on to lead the county seniors to two All-Ireland SFC triumphs.
Monaghan played as a goalkeeper and turned out with several of the current Meath senior team such as Vikki Wall and another goalkeeper Monica McGuirk.
She moved to England a few years ago and tried her hand at rugby with a local club in Brighton called Lewis RFC.
She proved adept at the game and ended up playing with top-ranking side Wasps.
She was noticed by the Irish management but her senior international debut came last year in a shock defeat to Spain that ended Ireland's hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.
Since then Monaghan has established herself on the Irish team as one of the lock forwards with her skilful off-loads one of her strengths and earlier this year she was voted the Women's XV Players' Player of the Year 2022 for her high-quality performances in the Six Nations.
Ireland struggled overall in the Six Nations but they ended their campaign on a high note defeating Scotland in Belfast with the help of a last-gasp try that helped them avoid ending up in the wooden-spoon position.
Monaghan has now moved moved from Wasps to Gloucester-Hartpury where she's set to continue the next phase of her career - and hopefully continue her meteoric rise.
Earlier this summer the IRFU grantd out full-time contracts to over 40 women Irish players as the governing body looks to try and make Ireland more competitive on the international stage.