New role another twist in Sam Monaghan's amazing career
The news towards the end of last week that Sam Monaghan will be joint captain of the Irish women's rugby team is another twist in the player's remarkable career so far. She will be joint captain along with Edel McMahon.
Monaghan, who is from Navan, 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.
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 and made an impression, attracting the attentions of those involved with selecting the Irish team. She subsequently joined Gloucester Hartpury RFC.
Her senior international debut arrived in 2021 in a shock defeat to Spain that ended Ireland's hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.
The game, however, announced the arrival of Monaghan on the big stage in her late twenties.
Despite the relatively late start Monaghan has established herself on the Irish team as one of the regular lock forwards with her skilful off-loads and ability to make the hard yards among her strengths.
She has thrived in the demanding environment of international rugby and was voted the Irish 'Players' Player of the Year' for 2022 because of her consistent, high-quality performances.
She was also one of four players selected on the 2022 TikTok Women's Six Nations Team of the Championship.
Now new Irish head coach Scott Bemand has named Monaghan and Edel McMahon as co-captains for the upcoming games in a tournament in Dubai.
Monaghan and McMahon previously were team-mates at Wasps.
Addressing the issue of Ireland's disappointing Six Nations campaign in 2023 Gillian McDarby, Head of Women’s Performance & Pathways confirmed "a leadership and culture review" had taken place with programmes now in place to drive and sustain high performance.
To facilitate this a Culture & Leadership lead, Sean Ryan, had been appointed to work with the team. Ryan has worked with high performance teams previously, most notably last season with the Munster Rugby coaching team.
The IRFU is also pleased to announce that recruitment will shortly open to fill the three independent positions on its Women’s Game Advisory Group.
The recommendation to add three independent external experts in women’s sport came in the Women in Rugby Report released in December 2022.
Ireland travel to Dubai on October 6th and play in the WXV3:
• 13th October versus Kazakhstan 19.30 (local time) 16.30 Irish time
• 21st October versus Colombia 17.00 (local time) 14.00 Irish time
• 28th October versus Spain 17.00 (local time) 14.00 Irish time
All games will be streamed for free on World Rugby’s RugbyPass platform.