Considine bows out after a glorious decade

On Tuesday Eimear Considine announced her retirement from rugby – by any stretch it was a remarkable career that started ten years ago last month with a post on LinkedIn, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh

The Irish Times was once known as the voice of ‘Official Ireland’ – that might have been true or false, but what’s not in doubt was that the old lady of D’Olier Street, and more latterly Tara Street has always prided itself on being home to bespoke commentary on all matters rugby.
Probably an old empire and ‘seóinín’ legacy thing, but there has always been a certain gravitas attached to the Times’ musings on William Webb Ellis’ game.
That’s why its real first introduction to Eimear Considine the rugby player was noteworthy when the opening words about her emergence as a shooting star in the game was noteworthy in itself and worth recalling:
“Seriously,” a feature article on the Kilmihil-woman began, “Eimear Considine has only played three and a half games of rugby”.
These words came in the early 2017 when the then 25-year-old was just beginning out on the second stage of a rugby career that, quite literally, helped her take the ladies game in Ireland by storm.
In January that year she became Clare’s first full rugby international in the 15-person game since Killaloe’s Rosie Foley when she made her Six Nations debut against Scotland in Edinburgh.
Ireland scored a hard-earned 22-15 win when she was introduced as a second half sub, while her first full start then came in the 13-10 win over a fancied French side in Dublin.
“I haven’t even played in games with my club UL-Bohemians,” revealed Considine after that first win. “I was just thrown into it. It’s great.
“People were asking if I was nervous coming on against Scotland but you train in the mud and winter days and cold and do gym sessions early in the morning for days like that, so you can perform, so what’s the point in being nervous?
“It was probably one of the proudest moments singing the Ireland’s Call over in Scotland,” she added. “I really can’t describe it. Twenty minutes into the first half I got the nod to warm up, so I spent most of the time before half-time getting ready. I had time to process it and it was so amazing.”
Her reference to UL Bohs was a nod to her meteoric rise in the game, which was sensational by any stretch of the imagination. A journey that started exactly ten years ago last month.
At this juncture Considine was known for her prowess as a Gaelic football and camogie star – for clubs and county, with Kilmihil providing the football outlet, Kilmaley for the camogie, while the county then called on both fronts.
By then she’s accomplished a lot – an All-Ireland intermediate title with Clare in 2009, while she also had Munster and All-Ireland junior titles with Kilmihil, county senior titles with Kilmaley and had played in the 2014 National League Division 1 Camogie final with the county.
Enough to be going on with for sure and it was no surprise when she admitted to having “zero interest” in rugby.
“I remember watching the women with the Grand Slam in 2014 against Italy,” she recalled. “I said to Mam, ‘I’d never play that. They were celebrating but they were covered in mud and it wasn’t in any way appealing to me,” he added.
However, little did she know that a knock, of sorts, was coming to her door. Let’s call it a virtual knock, via the super information highway in October 2014.
“I never used Linkedin, but had set up an account in college and through that the development coach for the Irish Sevens squad, Stan McDowell, messaged me,” she recalled.
“He had seen me play in the Naomh Mearnóg Sevens and told me who he was and that Ireland were trying to qualify for Rio 2016. When I saw the Olympics I knew it was something I’d never have got from football or camogie, so l rang him back straight away.
“It was a month before I saw the message and when I rang him I thought it might be too late, but he took me in. I met him and he basically taught me everything from scratch.
“I hadn’t a clue. I didn’t understand the rules and what was involved. He literally taught me from nothing, for about two or three months and just before the Christmas holidays from school I went into the full squad and then a week later I was picked to go to San Diego for a training camp.
“He taught me everything but it wasn’t until I played  matches that got to know the rules. My first game was against Canada and at the time they were number two in the world, so I was just thrown in at the deep end, not having a clue – about penalties, about off-side, there was so much I didn’t know and I just learned so much as I played.”
As part of the Sevens squad she got to travel much of the world – Dubai, Sydney, Amsterdam and Canada before the endgame in June 2016 as Ireland tried, but ultimately failed, to make the grade and qualify for the Rio Games.
“I thought that was it,” recalled Considine “but come September (2016) I missed big-time sport again and it was around then 1 got a text from the Munster head coach.
“I had three months off at that stage and I was ready to go back at something again they were preparing for the Inter-Pros so I said I’d do it. They were played in the first three weekends in December. I had never played a game of 15s before but I was in a better position than I was when I started Sevens.
“The first game was up in Kingspan against Ulster and it wasn’t really a day for backs – there might have been 12 or 13 scrums there were so many  knock ons.
“There was really, really bad weather that day so I didn’t get on much ball, I got to watch a lot and learn. Then against Connacht I had a much busier time in the back-line.”
Munster didn’t win the inter-pros. but along the way Considine scored her first try in the 15-person game and attracted the attention of Irish senior coach Tom Tierney who drafted her into the national squad for the 2017 Six Nations.
“Not once had it crossed my mind that I would be called up.” says Considine, “but then I got that email from Tom, just asking me was I interested in attending camp at the weekend. I responded straight away.
“I didn’t know if it was going to be for one weekend, because he brought players in and out. It could have been to do with numbers, maybe they needed 15 on 15 in training, so I didn’t really know what it was. For a weekend, or for a day? I actually broke my finger training that first day, so I thought that was my chance gone, but afterwards I was named in the extended panel of 30 for the Scotland game.”
The rest is history. She represented Ireland on 29 occasions at senior level, while she played for Munster on 15 occasions – with this interprovincial and international recognition coming after introduction to the game at Sevens level when she made her Irish debut at the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Grand Prix Series in Kazan before being part of the Irish squad for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai and São Paulo the following season.
Meanwhile, at club level she joined Limerick side UL Bohemian in 2016 winning her first All Ireland League title just a year later.
She first took time out from the game when having her first child Caolán in January 2023, but only three months later she was back on the pitch with UL Bohemians.
Unfortunately, her season ended prematurely as an ACL injury in the Interprovincial Championship would sideline her for a further year.
But this challenge did not deter her as she worked her way back into this season’s Munster squad, making two appearances, which included the Interprovincial final against Leinster, before then receiving the call-up for the national squad for the test match against Australia in September.
“It’s a big shock, it really is,” she said at the time. “I had accepted that my game against Leinster was going to be my last game with Munster and that could be my last game with high performance.
“I was happy to just walk off a pitch on my own terms. In my own eyes, I ended my Irish career with being stretchered off against England.
“My Munster career would have ended last year getting stretchered off against Leinster, so I kind of wanted to finish on my own terms. I had it in my head that two weekends ago was my last rugby match. Genuinely when I say I don’t believe it that I’m in here, I don’t believe it that I’m in here.
“I suppose the year previous I had a dream to come back to play for Ireland. Then the knee happened and then I just thought it was too far gone. I thought two years out of the game was just too far, but here I am,” she added.
And there she was, as she grabbed her chance by scoring a try in what was a 150th anniversary Test against Australia in Belfast when she marked her return with a try in the 36-10 win.
“I never imagined I’d get back for Ireland,” she admitted afterwards. “My aim was just to get back on the pitch with Munster. The professional and that sportsperson in you has that drive to get better and then, it’s like, ‘do you know what? I am good enough to be here and I have hit the targets’.”
It meant the next target was being part of the travelling Irish party for the WXV 1 tournament in Vancouver, where she again played her part in the starting 15 as the team captained by fellow Kilmihil woman Edel McMahon scored a famous 29-27 win over the Black Ferns.
She also played in the WXV 1 games against Canada and America, but this Tuesday called time on career that has seen her come back to play at the highest level, before going out on her own terms.
“At the age of 23, I was given an opportunity to play rugby. I had no idea back then of the incredible journey that lay ahead. But now, after 10 years, I feel it’s time that the journey ends,” she said.
“To all my coaches throughout the years at Bohs, Munster, and Ireland, thank you for backing me. To all my teammates, I have made friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.
“To my family, especially Dean (Ryan), it wouldn’t have been possible without your support and patience!
“To all the supporters, you’ve been there through thick and thin and I look forward to joining you from here on out.”
It was a remarkable journey, with that comeback try against Australia being the stuff of fairytales – because of the return from injury to the international stage, but also because of the opposition.
Back in 2017, selection for Ireland against Australia meant everything for Eimear because it meant she had made it to the World Cup stage for the first time.
“You got an email if you were picked and you got a phone-call if you weren’t,” she recalled of that World Cup call-up, “so I was hoping my phone wouldn’t ring. I was up at cock-crow. I couldn’t sleep because it was always on my mind. The email came.
“This was the chance to be the best you can be and play with the best. It doesn’t come better than playing in a World Cup.”
Seven years later it must have felt like a World Cup final when she capped any meteoric rise when going over for that try in Ravenhill.
It was a glorious decade, indeed.