International Women’s Day at Stradbrook

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International Women’s Day pre-game lunch, Stradbrook, 7 March 2026

In a first for Blackrock College RFC, we held a triple header with the Women’s 1^st XV, 2^nd XV playing against Railway Union RFC and the U14s Sharks played Kilkenny. In recent years the biggest derby game of the season is the Rock v Railway fixture with rivalry on the pitch and respect off the pitch in equal measure. We orgainised a pre-game launch honouring the women and men who have championed the women’s rubgy and the players from club, province, national and Olympic pitches on the eve of International Women’s Day and at the culmination of Women In Sport Week.

We were honoured to have Lynne Cantwell (Head IRFU Women’s Strategy), Yvonne Comer (Union Member and Chair of the Women’s Sub Committee), Dorothy Collins (Chair of the Leinster Women’s Committee) and Paul Mahon (Leinster Metro Representative) present along with Pat Finn, Dec Gardiner and Jen Moore from the Blackrock Exec. From Railway Union, we had among others Fergal Slattery (Director of Rugby), Shirley Corcoran (Chair of the Railway Executive) and Lyndsay Peat (former internanational and Railway Executive).

We were delighed to have the U14s as guests at the lunch, which was kindly facilitated by Killian O’Sullivan and Majentix. We welcomed the Rockettes back to the club and thanked them for being the pioneers of the game not just in Rock, but kicking off the Women’s AIL and forming the Irish Women’s Rugby Football Association with Mary Beirne. We were also thrilled to have some of our current players present and acknowldged the work that the likes of Maeve Óg O’Leary, Eimear Corri-Fallon and Maeve Liston are doing to promote the game. Thanks to Gowan Group for sponsoring that table. The current management were also at the lunch and all the work they have done so far this season. Thanks to Engage Financial Solutions for sponsoring them.

It was an opportunity to formally recognise the trail blazers that Rock have produce over the past thirty five years of women’s rugby at Stradbrook. Three seasons ago we commissioned the Sue Garden Bachop Trailblazer Trophy as a way of recognising these remarkable people who have battled the odds in developing Rock as one of the top clubs in the country and producting fifty international players and five Olympians. Sue was on the very first New Zealand women’s team (Black Ferns) in 1989 and when she found herself in Stradbrook in 1991. She was the catlyst in forming the women’s side and went on to represent New Zealand in several sports, a Black Fern selector and coach, the first female coach of a men’s premiership side in Wellington. When she was diagnosed with cancer in the early 2000s she wrote a book called Who will tuck me in? for children of parents with a terminal illness – a publication that is still used by the New Zealand Cancer Society today. We were in touch with her family when we commissioned the cup and they were delighted to see the impact that their mother had left behind in south Dublin.

For the current 2025/6 season, we were delighted to award this to Philip ‘Goose’ Doyle – he was there for the first training session to wining the three in a row with the Rockettes, went on to coach the provinces, Ireland, famously achieving a grand slam in 2013 and defeating the Black Ferns in 2014. He came back for a second stint with Rock in 2018, took a sabbatical to Scotland before coming back to Stradbrook and winning the AIL in 2022.

We also took this opportunity to award the forthcoming trailblazer on the trophy as Nicola Doyle. She was the driving force with Sue in forming the side and continued to develop it. She was instrumental in forming the Irish Women’s Rugby Football Union with Mary Beirne and in establishing the AIL. She went on to be the president of the IWRFU and has been a constant presence in one way or another since 1991. So Nicola and Goose, congratulations and thank you.

Railway also took this opportunity to recognise their original trailblazer. Fergal Slattery awarded Shirley Corcoran – a former Blackrock player who went on to establish the women’s section in Railway and changed the way clubs invested in women’s sport.

The session concluded with a panel discussion on the past, present and future of women’s rugby with Carole Anne Clark (played 10 seasons in Rock, captained Ireland, President of the IWRFU, 12 years as a minis and youths coach, Leinster Committee for past players and on the board of Her Sport), Christy Haney (current WXV international, assistant Rock coach, minis coach, camera woman extraordinaire and absolute scrum-lover), Shirley Corcoran (founding member of Railway Union Women’s side, Leinster player, women’s DOR and first female president of Railway and is now chair of the Railway exec) and Lynne Cantwell (current head of women’s strategy in the IRFU, formerly women’s high performance manager in South Africa, chair of Sport Ireland Wome, most capped-Irish women’s player and part of the grand slam and world cup semi finalists).

While the AIL result was not to be, great wins were had by the U14s and 2^ndXV on a day to remember at Stradbrook.

Thanks to our sponsors on the day:

Engage Financial Solutions, Gowan Group, Majentix, Jones Engineering and Elliotts Foodservice.

Raffle winners:

Six Nations Tickets Ireland v Scotland: Lisa Mullen

Apertivo at the Café voucher: Joan Moore

Vintage Inn voucher: Amy McKenna

Lifted Lifestyle 4-week membership: Paul Fogarty

Shark Hair Styler: Paula Durkan

Rock Merch: Dec Gardiner

Full Photo Gallery can be found here: Women's Day Lunch Event

All photos provided by Ronan Ryan.