In 2010, two players from the small village of Moynalvey in County Meath made their Test debuts for Ireland. As coincidence would have it both are second rows and both are known for their loft in lineouts.
Fast-forward to 2017 and Devin Toner and Marie Louise Reilly are both key players in their respective squads standing at six foot 11 and six foot four and a half inches respectively. Toner earned his 46th cap against Wales last week, while in tomorrow’s Women’s Six Nations Championship, Grand Slam and Triple Crown decider between Ireland and England Reilly will reach the 50-cap landmark.
Click here to see the 2017 Women’s Six Nations fixture list The 36-year-old known to her teammates as Maz recalls with a chuckle that both the Reilly and Toner families were known in Moynalvey for their height, “the Toner family would be on the right hand side of mass and we would be on the left hand side and between the two families we would block everyone else behind us. The ones coming in late for mass, we would be blocking them all.” With both Reilly and Toner two-time Six Nations winners, they were honoured by their home town, as with a giggle the player explains, “The local Londis in our village, they have put up a who’s who wall, so myself and Devin Toner have made the wall. So, there’s great pride every time you would go into the shop!” A FULL-BACK BY TRADE
Born in Leeds to parents from Mayo and Kerry, moving to Meath at aged 11, Reilly first got involved in rugby while a student at Tralee Institute of Technology, initially far from the second row as a full-back due to her background in Gaelic Football, “A college friend dragged me into playing rugby. Gaelic and soccer were more my sports in college. She said ‘I am stuck for players’. I didn’t know anything about it. She said, ‘you’ll be grand. Just stand in at full-back. It is like full-back in Gaelic. You get it, just kick it or run with it.’ So, I managed to play for Tralee as a full-back and then went to Navan, after leaving college, and was full-back there for a few years.”
Reilly who now plays her club rugby for Old Belvedere RFC had to make a positional change when it came to challenging for higher honours firstly with Leinster. She tells of her move from the back three to the engine room in her likable and self-effacing manner, “when they told me I had to go into second row if I wanted to get onto a Leinster team, or progress, I had to go on Google to know what it was and watch it on the telly to see where the four and five ran around.” The lock sees her personality reflected in her on-field position, “I suppose my family would potentially describe it as the donkey position on the team and you do a lot of hidden work and you are never going to be the glamour player but that suits me. I am kind of the low-profile kind of person and I like helping the team out as best I can around the park.”
An important part of Reilly’s role includes calling lineouts, “This year, the hard part is with the lineouts for me. Since Fi Coghlan left, I’ve been given the mantle of calling lineouts. That is an extra responsibility but I try to make it as simple as possible for myself.” Mastering the hidden language of the lineout requires diligent study, “I would be well known for having my notebook. I have to write everything down and go through it umpteen times before I get it. It is like having your study notes. You start with a lot and you work down to small little samples.” Away from the rugby field the Leinster player works as a sports officer for Dublin City Council based in the north Dublin suburb of Cabra working “to get everyone within the community engaged. We look at target groups, like youth at risk or older adults.”
WALKING FOOTBALL Reilly speaks with great fondness of some of the area’s older residents that take part in walking football, “we have some gentlemen from the community, and they are everything from 59-year-olds to 81-year-olds playing indoor five-a-side football, while walking. They still manage to nutmeg me now and again. Bill, one of the guys, it seems like his weekly goal, to nutmeg me. He said it is not too hard considering the length of my legs. It’s one of the highlights of the week for me.”
When asked whether her walking football friends are aware of her rugby career, Reilly answers with her trademark wit and warmth, “We started working with them last year and I think when they saw me first, they didn’t know what to make of me. I had a bruise on my arm one day and I think they were a bit worried about me. But then they realised we played rugby and they follow it. They come in and give me tips and see how I am getting on. “During the walking football, we play for 15 minutes and then we sit down for half an hour. It suits me lovely to have the chats. They will have researched the game and they will let you know how you got on, that you came off and you should have done this, should have done that and why didn’t you get up for the defensive lineout. Different things like that. It is very entertaining. It is like having my own television panel!”
Reilly is also inspiring a passion for rugby within her own family. Despite the family not having previously been involved with the sport, they have fully embraced it and it would seem her niece Rebecca may be taking after her, “None of our family had ever really been to a rugby game or played. After coming back from the Women’s World Cup in London in 2010, my brother Ciaran went to bring his daughter to Tralee to join the club there. There was not enough numbers, so he’s done fantastically well. He is the director of rugby in Listowel now and they set up a team there. Recently the U15s and U18s won the cup there not so long ago. They have over 60 girls participating there. They have only been established the last three years, with a few on the Munster team as well.” She adds, “Rebecca would have been the mascot for the Grand Slam and my other niece Cara is going to be my little mascot for the potential Grand Slam this weekend. It is a nice little link between the two.”
ST PATRICK’S DAY This brings us back to Ireland Women’s winner takes all clash with the Red Roses tomorrow. Despite being reigning World Champions and having dominated the Women’s Six Nations winning it seven consecutive times from 2006 to 2012, Ireland are the more recent tournament winners with their 2013 Grand Slam and 2015 Championship win. Reilly sums up not just how the occasion feels for her and her teammates but for Irish rugby fans, “It is going to be really exciting, Friday night in Donnybrook. Under lights, on Saint Patrick’s Day, it is all teed up to what should be a great spectacle for women’s rugby and rugby in general.”
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