14 hours ago
Ballinasloe's best ready to take Rugby World Cup by storm
As the club celebrates its 150th anniversary, Ballinasloe's Béibhinn Parsons, Aoibheann Reilly and Méabh Deely are excited to take on the challenge of Rugby World Cup 2025 and to make the local area proud.
For some towns or villages, to produce one inter-county player is a big moment.
For Ballinasloe, after a few barren years that preceded it, the sky has become the limit.
Since 2021 they have produced an Olympian, three senior women's rugby internationals and five Ireland Under-20 men's rugby internationals, all of whom have gone on to represent Connacht.
It is a remarkable feat for a club that has a long and complex, but unique backstory; but it is even more impressive for a town hampered by Ireland's post Celtic Tiger urbanisation.
As the IRFU wanted to make clear in their social media content; everyone has a back story. For these three, the opening chapter kicks into gear in October of 2013.
The east Galway club started the 2012/13 season without ever fielding a full women's team before, youths or senior; but that was soon to change.
"It was Aoibheann's dad Stephen who started it all," says Deely.
"He kind of got them to round up the troops in first year in Ard Scoil Mhuire and that's how we started."
Reilly adds: "When the girl's team was set up in 2013, so many girls from the school, and also from the neighbouring GAA areas of Pearses, Ballinasloe and Aughrim, decided to pick it up.
"As a lot of the girls had played other sports before, they picked rugby up so easily and we just did so well. It was very enjoyable."
Familial ties are the norm in underage sport, but especially for this watershed team.
Reilly's dad, Stephen, was their coach, while Deely's mother, Ann, was the team manager.
Neighbours and friends came onboard en masse, and over a decade later, their group became the catalyst for years of success.
"I remember at one point my mam told me there's over 90 girls playing in the club," Deely says.
"When I was there it was just our team for a while and then we got to two teams eventually.
"It is pretty cool and it's nice to know that we started something there with our group of girls that's still there and hopefully will stay there forever."
"To see the growth of the girl's section in the club now, it's amazing."
The road to Northampton has been a winding one for the three girls in green.
An untimely knee injury curtailed Reilly's Olympics aspirations and could have hampered her World Cup quest.
Parsons did feature at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she and the squad had to settle for an eighth-place finish, winning just one of their six games.
As for Deely, she missed the 2025 Six Nations through injury, but a consistent 80-minute showing in the warm-up clash with Scotland secured her plane ticket.
Now, with the squad's feet firmly on the ground, the excitement is mixed with a steely focus.
"There's lots of excitement. The start of summer, we were like, 'oh, it's ages away', but the nine weeks of pre-season and then a few weeks in between, it flew by", says scrum-half Reilly.
"As soon as I got that injury before the Olympics, I had my sights set on getting back in form for the World Cup.
"I got back for the opening game of the Six Nations and I'm glad I have the pre-season under my belt now and I'm ready to go.
"For me, it's just also just getting confidence again and back in playing with different combinations and getting that gel."
The aim is clear, get to the latter stages and set foot on the hallowed Twickenham turf in a final ideally, but a third place play-off would not be sniffed at either..
"As a team, we have this motto that we want to get to London," confirms Deely.
Reilly says: "[If we] get to the quarters, you try to go all the way. That's why every team goes there to do.
"We know we have the talent in the squad if we can just put our best performances out there."
One of the most prominent names in Ballinasloe folklore is that of Noel Mannion.
The former Ireland number 8 is most famous for his thrilling try in Cardiff back in 1989 and is now the club's director of rugby.
After over 50 years with the club, he could not be prouder of the recent resurgence.
"It's no accident that this talent arrived, it's a combination of good coaching as well talented young players. You can't take it for granted," said Mannion.
Noel and others are heroes of the past but now comes a new generation of unbridled talent.
From Ballinasloe underage to the top billing of international stages, one of the oldest clubs in Ireland has fast become one of the biggest suppliers in the club route.
"It is quite unique and it's only when you look around that you see most junior clubs don't produce provincial or international players," said the former Ireland forward.
"If you went to bigger clubs in Leinster, they wouldn't be anywhere near this level of production."
With 18 counties represented in the 32-player squad, this is an Irish rugby team that represents every corner of the island, and within it, Connacht's oldest club of Ballinasloe RFC are well and truly punching above their weight.
