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Ruth O'Reilly (born 12 August 1981) is a retired women's rugby union player from Tralee, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland. She played as a prop for Galwegians RFC, Connacht Rugby and the Ireland women's national rugby union team.[1]

Career

O'Reilly started playing rugby in 2002.[2] In 2014, she captained Galwegians to victory in the Women's All Ireland League.[1] She also became an assistant coach for Connacht Ladies and the manager of the Ireland women's Under-17 rugby sevens team.[3]

International career

O'Reilly made her debut for Ireland in 2012.[2] During this same year, she was part of the Ireland women's team that missed a connection and spent 17 hours on an overnight train travelling from Paris to Pau for a Women's Six Nations Championship match against the France women's national rugby union team, arriving only shortly before the match.[4] In 2017, she was selected as part of Ireland's team for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup hosted in Ireland. During the tournament, Ireland failed to reach the semi-finals and O'Reilly was forced to leave the team due to injury.[5] Before Ireland's seventh place playoff, she wrote an article published in The Irish Times criticising the Irish Rugby Football Union for a lack of support of women's rugby and the Ireland manager Tom Tierney for having "lost the dressing room".[2] Following Ireland's loss in the playoff in Belfast, Northern Ireland; fellow player Lindsay Peat defended O'Reilly for writing the article after criticism that it was O'Reilly's article that caused Ireland's loss.[6] O'Reilly retired from rugby afterwards.[7]

Personal life

O'Reilly originally worked as a marketing manager at a hotel before moving in 2010 to become a marketing and event manager for a medical company in Galway, County Galway.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Ruth O'Reilly". IRFU. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c O'Reilly, Ruth (26 August 2017). "Ruth O'Reilly: 'The guys in the blazers need to decide if this is something they are serious about'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Tralee expat Ruth key to Ireland Women's Six Nations triumph". Irish Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  4. ^ Gavin Cummiskey (17 February 2012). "IRFU take 'some blame' for debacle". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Irish Player Reveals Shambolic Preparation Ahead Of Rugby World Cup". Balls.ie. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  6. ^ "Lindsay Peat refuses to blame Ruth O'Reilly article as Ireland crash again". Irish Examiner. 28 August 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  7. ^ Sean Farrell (26 August 2017). "Tierney walks away after torrid World Cup calling for bigger, better athletes to play for Ireland". The42.ie. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
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