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Aoife Wafer named Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship

Aoife Wafer named Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship

Irish Examiner19-05-2025

Ireland back-row Aoife Wafer has been named the 2025 Guinness Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship after an outstanding tournament which saw her get 41% of the fan vote.
Wafer was on the short list alongside England winger Abby Dow, France second-rower Manaè Feleu and Scotland back-rower Evie Gallagher.
All four were voted on the 2025 Team of the Championship with their performance statistics and chart-topping number of fan votes securing them the top four places on the shortlist for the coveted award.
Over 18,546 supporoters casted their votes with the Ireland and Leinster start narrowly seeing off Feleu by 333 votes to claim the 2025 award.
Wafer was joint-second highest try scorer with four tries to add to her impressive 12 tries in 15 caps for Ireland. Her four tries in the 2025 Championship were the joint-most by any forward.
Wafer made 70 carries the most of any player in the 2025 Championship making a staggering 424.7 metres while beating 17 defenders the second highest of any forward in the Six Nations.
Speaking on winning the award Wafer said 'It means the world to me because I want to be the best in the world, and I want my name up there with those Irish women's rugby stars; I feel that this award is a little step towards that.
"It's huge for me but also for our team; it really shows how much we have done in the last 2 years and how much we are growing. This trophy is not just mine, it's the team, it's my family, it's more so for them than it is for me.
"I always wanted to be the best at everything I did, I wanted to make my family, my friends and my team proud. Ever since I was 6 I wanted to play for Ireland, and then, as I started growing up it became like 'you could be a professional women's rugby player in Ireland'.
"It's great to be nominated and win this trophy, and hopefully this can inspire the younger generation to pick a rugby ball or to pick up any sport as it's very important.'

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