Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey. Photograph: Natasha Barton
Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey has worn the Ennis RFC jersey since the club’s senior women’s side was founded, making her part of the team’s story from the very start.
Now, she is preparing to line out with her teammates as the first Clare side to compete in the All-Ireland League
At the age of fifteen, Caoilfhionn, along with her two younger sisters, claimed Kilrush as their home club with the encouragement of her Dad who was an avid rugby fan.
Growing up on a farm, Caoilfhionn’s Dad saw his daughters’ strength and encouraged them to start playing rugby. It was a sport that Caoilfhionn came to realise suited her build. “I was always punished for my physicality in football, whereas in rugby it’s praised so it just suited me, it suited my build, it suited me as an athlete to play rugby. And I suppose my dad could see that, and he knew I’d love it, so he kind of just gave me that extra push”.
She played two and a half years of underage rugby, but took a three-year break after turning 18 and realising that she didn’t have a team to play with. She returned to rugby when the Ennis and Kilrush clubs amalgamated and started on their senior team.
Rugby has helped her branch out in more ways than one, Caoilfhionn explained, as it built her up as a person and enhanced her communication skills. It gave her the opportunity to meet and play with girls from all over the county, compared to only the girls from her village football club, she said, “You play football with the girls you go to school with […] you play with the girls from your village, whereas rugby, because it was Kilrush, it was girls from all over West Clare, and then again, when we joined Ennis, it was girls from all over Co Clare. It really helped me branch out, make friends, it’s a really good community, you die for each other out on the pitch”.
Many of the members who joined the team either had not played rugby in a while or had not played at all. “A lot of us were in the same boat”, Caoilfhionn explained. When training began, members recognised their similar passion with a shared previous lack of an outlet. She said, “It didn’t matter if we won or we lost, we just played rugby for the love of rugby, and it was great that we didn’t have that pressure. Nobody expected us to win matches; You could just go out, play, enjoy it, and we just happened to win”.
“We’ve grown so much in the last three years, individually and as a team”, said Caoilfhionn, mostly thanks to the team’s management. She commented that the effort they put in brings the girls onto another level: “It’s the reason we have been winning so much, and we have progressed so much.” “We recognise that, we feel that, and it drives us on”.
Caoilfhionn was invited to join the Connacht rugby team over the summer and recently competed in the Interprovincial Championship, where she was named in the 23 for each game. She described the experience as big step up. She said that the Connacht team expects high standards and every training session must be treated like a match. She feels since starting training with Connacht her skills as a player have improved and she to bring these improvements into the upcoming AIL competition.
An aspect of playing on the Connacht squad Caoilfhionn was not expecting was the challenge of facing off against her sister and Ennis/Kilrush team mates who were selected for the Munster side. When speaking about her experiences going head-to-head with familiar faces from the Munster squad, Caoilfhionn shared that she had to play against her sisters. “It was a weird experience. When I came up against them in the match, I couldn’t tackle them. I just let someone beside me tackle them.” Despite these “weird” occurrences, Caoilfhionn stated that she wouldn’t change it and described how fun it is to come up against them in matches.
Despite training with Munster throughout the summer Caoilfhionn is still very excited about the team’s recent promotion and the prospect of lining out with her home town team mates against inter-provincial players. “I can’t wait to play against girls you’ve heard about playing with Munster and Leinster, and Connacht for years. I want to see how I match up to them, and I want to see how good we are”.
