By Laura Coates
On the Friday of training weekends, Ireland’s Joanne O'Sullivan dashes from her day job organising stag parties in London to catch an early evening flight to Ireland.
She'll attend an evening team meeting before being up early for a 10am start on the pitch. There'll be another meeting at the team hotel on Saturday night, and then training again on Sunday before she catches a five o'clock flight home to make it into work on Monday morning.
This is a pattern O'Sullivan will follow for at least ten weekends of team sessions and matches between now and the start of Ireland's bid for World Cup glory in August.
“We've only got two training sessions before the Six Nations starts, so there will be a lot to cram in,” she said.
The versatile Ireland backline player caught 22 flights on her own shilling last season to play for the Irish set-up, which she reckons cost her at least 2,000 euro. It's hefty sum for a player who receives no financial backing from province or union.
It's a dedication that has left its mark on the Irish player's career, pocket and personal life, but O'Sullivan is determined to get to her second World Cup next summer.
O'Sullivan, now 28, was born and bred in Kent, of Limerick parents. There's no rugby blood in the family but she was spotted coming through the schools system and sent for county trials.
She was involved in the England squad underage set-up, but made the call to play for the green at senior level. England's loss was Ireland's gain, and O'Sullivan has now featured in the Irish set-up for eight years, playing at out-half and full back in the 2009 Six Nations campaign.
“It was definitely the right decision to play for Ireland,” she says now in a softly-spoken English accent.
On 48 caps - “give or take one or two!” - she made it onto the last World Cup squad and has appeared for both Leinster and Ulster.
O'Sullivan holds a degree in sports psychology from Loughborough University, but took her events sales job, which involves organising trips for stag parties visiting London, when she moved to the capital. She's stayed, because her employers have given her the flexibility to pursue her rugby dreams, including granting a month's leave for next year's World Cup.
O'Sullivan insists she's not jealous about the differences between her situation and the English squad girls with whom she plays in Richmond.“I live with an England player, and they get financial help and many of them are given coaching jobs as well. They are encouraged not to work for this World Cup season, and it shows in their play,” she said. “You can aspire to that [in the Irish set-up], but really, personally I play because I love the sport, and if money comes into it, it takes away from why you do it in the first place,” she said.
Of concern to O'Sullivan is the current Irish grassroots set-up. She talks about the need for more coaches at a local level, an increase in the number of girls playing rugby in Ireland and a more structured feeder system to the senior squad, such as the one she benefitted from in England.
“The [Irish] union has encouraged a lot of small clubs to set up women's teams, which means that smaller teams often can't field 15,” she says.
O'Sullivan plies her weekly trade with English league-toppers Richmond, where Irish team-mate Lynne Cantwell also played last season before travelling to New Zealand.
The experience is, in some respects, far beyond what a player in Ireland, could expect on a week-to-week basis. “It's a really good club, it has a lot of money and support,” she says of the team with whom she has spent three seasons. Richmond is pretty unique in that it can also field three women's teams.
She holds down the number 13 shirt in a squad which contains several English players such as Rachael Burford and Fiona Pocock, and describes playing with the guts of the England backline as “amazing”.
“Every Tuesday we have backline or front row or back three clinics, and we have specialist coaches come down, that kind of thing is hard for Ireland to co-ordinate,” she says.
However, she is full of praise for the improved Irish conditioning programmes introduced under new coach Kevin West's regime.
“Regular fitness testing gives you targets to aim for and something to work towards, which is good. It just keeps you on your toes, because you know someone is breathing down your neck.”
For six months a year, O'Sullivan is completely dedicated to her sport, training six days a week, and she even plays rugby sevens in the summer. “I'll do it as long as my body will let me,” she says. “You do sacrifice things such as family member’s birthdays but that's a choice you make.” Fortunately for O'Sullivan, her other half also knows the demands of being dedicated to a game. Her boyfriend Johnny Smith plays his rugby in Edinburgh. “It's tricky, but I think it helps being with someone who plays,” she said.
O'Sullivan says she hasn't thought about her career after the World Cup this August, but envisages that even after she hangs up her boots she will continue her involvement through reffing or coaching. “I don't want to get to a point where my performance drops. I want to finish on a high, I'm quite conscious of that. Just thinking of not playing... the thing I'll miss most will be the girls, they're a great bunch.”
However, thoughts of retirement are far from her mind at the moment, with a friendly game against Scotland this weekend and the Six Nations and World Cup on the horizon. Of the Scotland game, O'Sullivan says she hopes it will be a good team performance. “We have some new combinations coming through this season so we'll be trying new things out; there are quite a few younger players, so seeing how they cope. A team performance is more important than the result. Obviously we've beaten them three times out of the last three games so it would be good to continue that, but the emphasis will be on the coming together of a game plan.”
The mood in the Irish camp, she says, has been “building and building” in advance of the 2010 Six Nations. “Wales is our nemesis, we just need to get away from them,” she says of the side who narrowly defeated the girls in green in the last match of this year's campaign, “and then also play well against the likes of France [who Ireland beat for the first time last spring]. If they turn up on the day they're a great side.”
Come the World Cup, pool games of which will be played in Guildford, with the semis and finals at The Stoop, O'Sullivan will be in the unusual position of welcoming her Irish team-mates to her neck of the woods.
“I might even be able to pop into the office,” she joked. Until then, O'Sullivan will just keep running for that plane to pursue her dreams in green.
