News

Highlights: January 2025

31st January 2025

Categories: Develop, Engage, Represent

LinkedIn Workshop

There was a strong rugby representation as the Performance Life Skills team at the Sport Ireland Institute facilitated a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for elite athletes. As well as getting the most out of the platform, including one-to-one LinkedIn coaching sessions, the athletes were addressed on the power of networking by Billy Dardis. Billy was later joined by former Olympian sailor Ger Owens and former Longford GAA footballer John Keegan who are both employees at LinkedIn for a panel discussion on the transition out of elite sport.

To hear more about Billy’s experience of the transition out of rugby, click here.

Transition Talk

The New Year tends to bring the future into focus and so in the first days of 2025, we were delighted to be joined by Adam Macklin and Andrew Maxwell at Ulster Rugby who spoke at length about how they adapted to life in the working world and some of the challenges they faced along the way.

Incidentally, both Adam and Andrew left the game when they felt ready to do so. Andrew opted to move to Florida to run a business which helped him learn the intricacies of the hospitality industry, while Adam has enjoyed a successful career to date in recruitment where he found the fast pace, goal setting aspect suited the skills he learned during his rugby days.

Milestones

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Martin Seras Lima

There was a big welcome back for several players in January following long-term injuries. Sidelined for 8 months with an ACL injury, JJ Hanrahan returned to action for Connacht Rugby. Having missed out on the Olympic Games, Kate Farrell-McCabe was back for the Irish 7s in Perth. Dan Sheehan was typically dynamic as he made his comeback for Leinster Rugby before swiftly jetting out to Portugal to link up with the Irish camp ahead of the Six Nations.

Sheehan was joined in camp for the first time by Ben Murphy, Hugh Cooney, Cathal Forde and James McNabney who were all named as development players for the Six Nations campaign. The only uncapped player in the full squad named initially was Jack Boyle but he was soon joined by late call-up Jack Aungier.

John Cooney made it to 150 caps for Ulster Rugby this month while both Andrew Porter and Ross Byrne celebrated their 50th Champions Cup caps.

Our best wishes also to Éanna McCarthy who kicked off his captaincy for the Irish U20s Six Nations campaign against England at Virgin Media Park.

Tackle Your Feelings

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

In January, TYF kicked off the year in flying form with a visit from Michéal Martin at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition at the RDS.

Ulster Rugby’s Zac Ward also spoke with the Z Zurich Foundation on behalf of Tackle Your Feelings about the importance of role models in young peoples’ lives.

You can read Zac’s revealing piece here.

Dartry Health Club

Ahead of the Legends game, members of our past player community were put through their paces by the team at Dartry Health Club. As Rugby Players Ireland’s wellbeing partner, Iconic Health Clubs have been an invaluable resource for both current and former players over the years.

Contract News

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Andrew Conan

Paul Boyle, Ben Murphy, Sean Jansen, Shane Jennings, Niall Murray and Sam Illo have all signed new deals at Connacht Rugby.

A lot of work has been done at Munster Rugby over the past number of weeks with Tom Ahern, Shane Daly and Alex Nankivell each signing two-year deals, while Shay McCarthy, Evan O’Connell, Ruadhán Quinn and Kieran Ryan all move to senior deals.

Such positive news in Limerick was also boosted by the announcement that Michael Milne and Lee Barron are set to join the province from Leinster Rugby. Meanwhile, after a very productive short-term spell, Dian Bleuler has returned to the Sharks while Eoghan Clarke has moved to Saracens.

At Ulster Rugby, Nick Timoney, Jacob Stockdale, Eric O’Sullivan, John Andrew, James McCormick and Callum Reid have all signed on, while January also saw the welcome return of Rob Lyttle who rejoined the province as emergency injury cover. After nine years at the province, Irish international Kieran Treadwell will return to Harlequins at the end of the campaign.

Player Development Programme

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Having joined the Rugby Players Ireland Player Development team in October, we caught up with Ronan Loughney to see how he has found his first few months working back at Connacht Rugby.

Read it here.

ELPA x WPA Player Health & Safety Summit

Representatives of Rugby Players Ireland were in Barcelona for the Player Health & Safety Summit hosted by World Players Association in partnership with the EuroLeague Players Association, brought together global experts to address escalating risks to player wellbeing for the first time. The aim of the event was to tackle the critical challenges posed by growing demands on athletes in the modern sports landscape

Acknowledgement

Following long-term injuries and the birth of her son Caolán, Eimear Considine made a remarkable return to the Irish jersey in 2024 and also played a pivotal role as Ireland secured second place in WXV1. Eimear’s resilient journey was acknowledged by HerSport.ie who named her as their Personality of the Year 2024.

Annual Review 2024