Fit-again Niamh O'Dowd to return but Béibhinn Parsons still out as ‘energised' Ireland set for Six Nations finale
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The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
BBC sports presenter reveals she's pregnant with sweet bump pic after getting engaged and buying new home
She gave an insight into how her pregnancy has been so far grand slam! BBC sports presenter reveals she's pregnant with sweet bump pic after getting engaged and buying new home BBC sports presenter Jenny Drummond has revealed she's pregnant with her first child. The 36-year-old shared her happy news after getting engaged and buying a brand new home. 3 Jenny Drummond has revealed she is pregant with her first child 3 Jenny is a well loved sport's presenter Credit: Instagram Advertisement Posting a picture cradling her baby bump, Jenny - who has not revealed who her partner is - told her followers: 'They say things sometimes come in threes - engagement, house, now baby G. Feeling very lucky indeed.' The former tennis player - who has covered everything from Wimbledon to the Women's Six Nations - was inundated with messages from her famous pals and fans. Fellow presenter Laura Woods commented: 'Amazing news congratulations! Xxx' Golfer Annabel Croft remarked: 'Congratulations, such wonderful news.' Advertisement Read More on BBC sports LIFE CHANGING Olympic hero Rebecca Adlington reveals life-changing diagnosis And Sky host Eleanor Roper added: 'Aww congratulations!!!' Jenny gave an insight into her pregnancy as she shared a video made during Wimbledon. She wrote alongside it: 'Always so proud to present and voice the women's preview to the Wimbledon final of @bbcsport coverage. 'Not going to lie, I puked my way through this shoot - morning sickness has not been my friend but we got there thanks to pick n mix and most importantly to Joe Bamonte, @bensmith_cam and the editing team in Salford.' Advertisement Jenny, who hails from Scotland, is known for her work on BBC Sport and TNT Sports, where she specialises in tennis, rugby, and golf. She previously opened up about being a female in a male-dominated industry and told the Daily Mail: 'As a female you get commented on how you look and what you wear rather than how you perform as a presenter or reporter. 'Then people criticise the angle of your questions or how articulate you were in the way that you said something. That p****s me off, for sure. 'I use Twitter/X for work but am not active on it. I'm sensitive and can't hack that (abuse) side of it, so I don't even bother looking.' 3 Jenny was sent lots of messages of congratulations Advertisement
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Front row move proved to be Niamh O'Dowd's 'golden ticket' to World Cup
It's not much more than two years since Niamh O'Dowd was a flanker struggling for game time with Old Belvedere. Now she's on the brink of her first World Cup with Ireland where, when push comes to shove, she will be the starting loosehead prop. O'Dowd thinks now of the back rows that Ireland fielded at the time. There were giants of the women's game like Claire Molloy and Ciara Griffin. Brittany Hogan, now the team's No.8, was starting to embed herself, too. 'Like, I wouldn't have even put myself in the same hemisphere." That's now. She wasn't even thinking about Ireland back then. How could she with the strength in depth at Old Belvo where Jenny Murphy and Jennie Finlay, both former internationals, were before her in the queue. Hogan was another of them on those weekends where she wasn't busy with the Irish sevens. Same with talents like Erin King, world XVs breakthrough player of the year in 2024, and Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird who just missed out on the latest tournament squad. 'It was actually almost as competitive as the Irish back row.' O'Dowd had never played rugby until she followed her older sister into the UCD club in college. That led to 'Belvo' just up the road in Ballsbridge and a slow but steady progression as a flanker that eventually took her as far as the interpros. Then everything changed. 'I remember very clearly. It was a Thursday down in Belvo. It was actually [former Ireland player] Ailis Egan and Tania [Rosser, Leinster head coach] came up to me, and they just said, 'you're gonna be a loosehead'. 'Now, before that they had been playing around with the idea of hooker, but they said, 'no, no, you can't throw'. So they eventually decided I'd be a loosehead and I went down to Ballincollig for my first game, starting front row, and I absolutely hated it. 'I'd gone from being so carefree, just running around the place, doing whatever I wanted, absolutely no responsibility. Every knock on, I was like, 'Oh my God, here we go again'. You know what I really realised? I have to get so much fitter now.' There was no more catching her breath come scrum time, but fitness was just one missing piece of this puzzle. O'Dowd didn't know how to bind, or where her feet went, or what height she should hold. None of it. The education process started at the club and Ireland scrum coach Denis Fogarty pitched in once she made the Celtic Challenge level. Cue endless technical work, video analysis and pointers from teammates. Linda Djougang was an invaluable resource as the Ireland tighthead packed down opposite her in training sessions. So too Christy Haney, the loosehead who will miss this World Cup with injury, and hookers like Neve Jones. 'Every single session, every single rep, you're learning something.' Now a career that was inching forward was making big, galloping strides. It was at the WXV1s in Canada late last year where O'Dowd worked a groove for herself in the starting front row and she hasn't been budged since. Small in stature, she had all the right answers when giving 12 and six kilos respectively to France's Rose Bernadou and Clara Joyeux in the opening round of the Six Nations in Belfast earlier this year. O'Dowd was rock solid at the setpiece despite being asked to put in a 77-minute shift, and she decorated that with more successful tackles (14) than anyone in green and with only Aoife Wafer carrying more ball. Three rounds later and that picture was skewed when England's Maud Muir had her in all sorts of trouble at the scrum and referee Aurelie Groizeleau made her pay with ten minutes in the sinbin just after half-time. One of the Irish coaches put it into perspective afterwards when reminding her that pretty much every prop in the history of rugby has had those days, and O'Dowd herself is first to say that her learning curve hasn't flattened out just yet. She's ready for the work still to come, and immensely grateful for that curveball of a switch that will see her play in a World Cup when she was struggling to get off the bench for Belvo when the last one was contested in 2022. 'The front row was my golden ticket, and still is, to be honest. Like, it's always a position that's going to be needed.'
The 42
5 days ago
- The 42
'I feel so lucky. If this is my only World Cup I want to grab it with both hands'
NIAMH O'DOWD knew she'd enjoy playing rugby when she first signed up in college, but the path which has since unfolded has exceeded all expectations. Starting out as a keen amatuer player who saw the game as a good social outlet, she's currently settling into the Ireland team hotel in England, preparing for the start of the team's Women's Rugby World Cup campaign, which begins next week. 'In school, I didn't play it at all,' O'Dowd explains. 'I used to play a bit of basketball, a bit of hockey, just a bit of everything in school, but nothing to any high level. Then when I moved up to Dublin for college, my older sister was playing in UCD and it sounded like great craic and I was like, 'Sure I'll join it as a social thing, get out of the library,' and I loved it. O'Dowd arriving in London on Friday. 'And because I hadn't played a contact game before, I knew I'd love it, I had just never picked it up. Like I'm not a runner, I'm not a passer, it's the contact side of the game that I just love.' O'Dowd had a talent for the game and crucially, was highly competitive. After learning the ropes in UCD O'Dowd started playing with Old Belvedere, a move which led her into Leinster and onto the Celtic Challenge. In her own words, 'it just snowballed.' 'For a long time getting the start with Belvo was a big aim for me and just getting minutes at AIL, so I was taking that very seriously, but when I got capped for Leinster that was when I was like, 'OK, it's not just a hobby.' I definitely remember we had training with our club, training with our provinces, and that's when I like had to give up my part-time job. That's probably when rugby started to take the front seat.' Advertisement The Wexford native relished the contact side of the game, getting her kicks from hitting rucks and making tackles. As a high-workrate back rower things were going fine, but a conversation with former Ireland international Ailis Egan changed the trajectory of O'Dowd's rugby career. 'Oh God, I still remember it. I rocked down to training (with Old Belvedere) one Thursday and Ailish Egan just came up to me and was like, 'You're going to be a loosehead.' There was a few tears now at the start. I remember I went down to Ballincollig, that was my first game in the front row and I absolutely hated it. I had just gone from being carefree, running around doing what I wanted, no responsibility, to every time there's a knock on – 'Oh my God, I have to do this scrum now.' I had no idea what I was doing. 'It was a very steep learning curve but it's been the best thing ever for me. I'm so glad they kind of forced my hand in that way because I'd probably still be playing at club if they hadn't, so I'm very grateful.' O'Dowd only became a regular in the Ireland team last autumn but has made a big impression over the last year. Now 25, she's been capped 17 times and was nominated for Women's 15s Players' Player of the Year at this year's Rugby Player Ireland Awards. O'Dowd works on her scrummaging. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Yet there's still work to do. She admits she's still learning her craft when it comes to scrum time, with this year's Six Nations defeat to England a notably challenging afternoon. By her own admission she's not the most physically imposing loosehead, but the aim is to improve the scrummaging work while continuing to make her presence felt around the pitch. 'Because I'm that bit smaller scrums take a bit more effort for me, so I really realised 'God I need to get fitter' because you have to put so much energy into each scrum and then go and actually play a game of rugby as well. It's a lot of hard work (playing in the front row). You're lifting in every single lineout, you're in every single maul. There isn't any let up.' As rugby became an increasingly central part of her life, other pursuits had to go on hold. O'Dowd, who grew up in farming family near Gorey, is studying veterinary in UCD but admits she expects to be completing her final year of studies for 'probably another year or two.' It can wait. Her rise from enthusiastic amatuer to Ireland international has been a great source of pride to those closest to her. O'Dowd's parents will make the journey over to support their daughter in England, while her grandparents will be watching on from home. For a pre-World Cup portrait released this week, O'Dowd brought along a picture of her Cork-based grandparents. 'My grandparents, they're honestly like my second parents,' O'Dowd explains. O'Dowd with a photograph of her grandparents. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO 'They live down in Cork so growing up I would have spent any Easter holidays, summer holidays we'd go down to Cork for a few weeks and they'd absolutely spoil us. 'They can't really go to many games now, but they love watching it on TV and you can just tell how proud they are. Even though they can't really go to games, anytime the games are televised they just love watching it and they just love it. 'And then my parents are obviously just delighted for me, like everyone's here, they're just buzzing.' O'Dowd herself is looking forward to the experience, knowing opportunities like this are there to be savoured. 'Honestly, I just feel so lucky to be going, so far everything has gone my way and I'm on the plane, so I just feel so lucky, so grateful and I'm very aware that nobody knows if you'll ever get another World Cup, they come around every four years and there's so much that can in the way like injuries, selection. 'So I just feel so lucky and if this is my only World Cup I want to grab it with both hands, really enjoy it and try to get the most out of myself.'
