Double delight for Wafer family on a momentous weekend

From Edinburgh on Saturday to Cork on Sunday; not a good week to be subject to the whims of rising diesel prices and Dublin Airport queues.

Still, nothing would stop the Wafer family from being there as two of their own both pulled on green jerseys for the first time last weekend.

In a strange twist of fate, Orla Wafer, playing for Ireland U18s over in Edinburgh, would debut the same weekend that older sister, Aoife, got her first senior cap during Ireland’s Six Nations victory over Italy at Musgrave Park.

Mercifully for the family, there was no difficult decision over which match to go to as the two were on different days, Orla’s last Saturday, Aoife’s on Sunday. It meant a 48 hour round-trip from Wexford to the Scottish capital – via the dreaded airport madness – before a quick stop at home and a three-hour drive down to Cork.

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That wasn’t even the extent of the travel up to that point, nor will it be the end of it.

Aoife was a reserve both for the home game against Wales at the RDS and away to France in Toulouse, and family members were there just in case she got to tog out. There are still two rounds of the Six Nations and two more potential caps in Leicester and Belfast. What’s more, Orla’s campaign in Edinburgh didn’t end until a 17-10 defeat to Wales on Wednesday.

Thank god for Ryanair, eh?

“Oh you can sing that,” says Sam Wafer, mother of the two sisters, not long after the mother of all weekends for rugby watching.

“I’m a bit hoarse after all the shouting! They [the debuts] fell the right way this week thank god, I’d never have heard the end of it if I picked one over the other.”

Despite being the one in the senior camp, Aoife has her suspicions of who would have won the battle for familial attention if the two milestones had happened on the same day.

“Mam tries not to play favourites,” explains the Blackrock backrow, “but Orla being the baby I’d say she’d edge me out a little bit!

“If they would have gone to Scotland I would have been alright with that because they would be able to catch my match on TV, but Orla’s matches weren’t streamed.”

Streams weren’t required as the supporting posse got to both games, even catching Aoife’s cap presentation ceremony and her viral rendition of Party in the USA for her mandatory rookie song.

There is clearly the usual sibling rivalry, but older sister Aoife was beyond ecstatic when, while in Ireland camp, she first heard that Orla – two years her junior – would be running out for the underage side.

Yellow card

“I rang Orla and she was fresh out of her meeting with Katie Fitzhenry [Ireland U18 head coach] and she had the biggest smile on her face that I”d seen, she just told me she made it. I was going around to all the girls, they were all chatting after the [France] match and I just told them ‘my sister made the U18 team!’ Walking over to Greg [McWilliams, head coach of the senior team] and all the girls, everyone was delighted for her.”

The respect is clearly mutual. Aoife’s debut is memorable for a number of positive reasons, the one negative being a yellow card for a ruck entry not long after coming off the bench. There are plenty of households in which, had a sibling have seen that, the slagging would be merciless. Not so amongst the Wafers, but the ribbing did come from instead from Ireland teammates.

“I actually think she [Orla] was very upset over in Scotland,” says Aoife. “The squad was watching it on the livestream and I think she got a bit upset seeing me going off and being upset. It played with her a bit I think.

“After the game I was chatting to the [Ireland] girls and a few of them were coming up to me saying ‘yeah, I had a yellow card on my first cap too, you don’t have a first cap without a good story’ kind of thing. It was one to remember anyway.

“Another moment to remember is coming back onto the field and getting a big turnover because it settled me back into the game, I wanted to prove I’m not just there to make up numbers. I wanted to play in that jersey and earn my spot.”

The two sisters started out their rugby playing days as minis at Gorey before moving to Enniscorthy where girls’ youth teams were easier to come by.

Aoife – aged 19 – has since moved up to Dublin for a physiotherapy degree at UCD and plies her trade for Blackrock in the AIL. College exams and a camp with the Sevens squad mean she hasn’t seen Orla in person since the pair had their stellar weekend, but a reunion on Easter Sunday should be an emotional one for the entire family.

Unsurprisingly, rugby has been a staple of the Wafer household for as long as anyone there can remember. Older brother, Sean, has played for a Leinster U18s club side, meaning there is quite a jersey collection already up on the wall given the sisters’ underage and provincial honours.

What has pride of place in Aoife’s room, at least up until now, is a particularly memorable birthday present, one that shows just how much getting capped meant to both her.

“I was the biggest Irish rugby fan girl growing up,” she explains. “I can remember sitting in the car one day with my brothers and we were just passing time and there was a game of naming as many Irish players as you could.

“They were there naming Johnny Sexton, Brian O’Driscoll and all these big names in the men’s team and I named the whole women’s panel. It was a 38-player squad and I named every single one of them. They just sat there and said ‘no, you can’t do that like.’

First cap

“Goose [Philip Doyle, former Ireland women’s coach] , who’s coaching in Blackrock now, when he was coaching Ireland you couldn’t buy any women’s jerseys at the time. So he got a spare one and had everyone on the team sign it –- he signed it himself as well – and then he sent it out to me for my birthday.

“We got it framed and it’s been hanging up above my bed ever since. Now I’ve got my first cap jersey, one of the first things I did was ask for a marker and ask for everyone in the room, players and coaches, to sign it. I’ll get it framed with my cap and put it up beside it.”

Remarkably, given the relatively small age gap between the two, Orla and Aoife have never lined out on the same rugby team, albeit they have done so for their GAA club.

Considering the double dose of wearing green, it must be difficult to avoid thoughts of the ideal scenario, lining out for the senior team together.

“It’s always in the back of your mind,” admits Aoife. “It would be a dream, playing with your sister and having that familiar face everywhere you go. It’s nice having your family in the crowd but they only see you for a few minutes after the game. Having your sister constantly through the game would be amazing.

“We’re both backrows so it would be a bit of competition anyways!”

As their mother Sam puts it, “Thank god there’s two flanker positions.”

If all else, at least having only one match to watch would help the family with the diesel bill.