Eimear Corri-Fallon soaking up World Cup role after finding peace on the journey

Irish Examiner

19 hours ago

Scottie Scheffler took everyone by surprise in Portrush earlier this summer when the world's best golfer held court on how golf, a sport that has consumed him from a young age, wasn't ultimately a source of fulfilment.
The American's words ahead of The Open Championship generated enormous interest but boil it all down and what he tried to explain was nothing more than the fact that it was family, and faith, that came first on his podium.
That it went viral sheds a light into the exaggerated claims we all make for sport at elite levels, but Eimear Corri-Fallon was a decade younger than Scheffler is now at 29 when she realised that rugby had become all-too consuming a pursuit.
She was still a teenager when a freak ankle injury sidelined her for a full year and, bad as that was, worse came just a handful of games into her comeback when she suffered a similar trauma to the other ankle. All told, she was close to three seasons out.
Careers have been ended by less. Not this one.
Corri-Fallon showed incredible maturity and presence of mind at such a young age. She worked with a sports psychologist in the wake of her troubles and came to a conclusion and an approach that is serving her well even now.
'The injury really got me down, and then I actually managed to get back from the injury and I didn't get selected for Leinster. That was my lowest moment, to not get accepted for Leinster, because I'd been involved before.
'I had literally transitioned from U18 Leinster to senior. Leinster in the same season won the interpros that year, both U18 and senior. So I had had a dream summer. To then not get picked for a squad that I'd been involved in previously, that was tough to take.
'I took it so hard that that's when I realized, you know, I'm so invested in this. I was known as that girl who plays for Leinster so I knew I needed to get my identity away from that, because the injury showed me how quickly it can be taken away.'
This was the turning point.
There would be more injuries. Corri-Fallon played her first game in eleven months when starting for Ireland against Scotland in the World Cup warm-up in Cork a few weeks back, but those earlier setbacks have taught her to cherish every moment she gets on the field.
It's not that disappointments don't hurt. Devastation can still call if she misses out on a selection, but she can rationalise all that, and understand that she still carries value as a player.
'So I have that mindset, and I have those tools now to be able to look at the positives and know that it's okay. I can feel all those emotions at the same time, but I'm very confident in myself as a non-rugby player as well, even if it took me hard lessons to get there.' Athletics was her thing at first.
A promising sprinter with Portlaoise AC, her pace brought her onto the radar of Allison Miller, the former Ireland international who set up the first girls' team at the midlands club, but it was Emma Hooban who provided the initial link.
Hooban, who has also gone on to play for Ireland, was in the same class in school and had played with the boys until the girls team was formed at U12s and she asked Corri-Fallon and other to go for a look-see.
Things snowballed quickly for a trailblazing group that was a rarity of its type in the girls game, if not unique, across Leinster. There was next to no leakage of players as they went all the way through the age grades, winning silverware as they progressed.
Put it to Eimear-Corri that she was lucky, that she happened to be the right age at the right time and in the right place, and she is quick to point out that even this timely pipeline had its limits on her journey to the elite game.
'Yeah, it's funny that you say that. I was so lucky to be that age group but, even for us, we didn't have a 20s. A couple of the girls here have gone through the 20s and I'm like, 'wow, I'm so jealous of you guys'. So it's only getting better.'
The path is the path.
Corri-Fallon has made it to a World Cup despite the injuries that actually prompted her to make the switch from winger to second row, and by juggling so successfully her studies and her ongoing work in medicine.
All of which makes the reward all the sweeter.
'It really means so much. There's been at least two points in my career where I genuinely didn't know if I'd get back on a rugby pitch so it's not guaranteed at all. A World Cup squad is such an honour, and to finally achieve that, it's just so hard.'