THERE are Katie Taylor vibes to Enya Breen’s rise in the rugby world – how, as talented young girls, both held their own against boys in the sport they would go on to make headlines in.
Whereas boxing icon Taylor had to pretend to be a boy when she was fighting at competitions, hiding her ponytail and fighting as K Taylor, Enya’s story differs slightly, but she was still an outlier in a male-dominated sport at the time.
Her rugby journey, which has led to the Castletownshend woman scoring a try at the ongoing Women’s Rugby World Cup, started with the Carrigaline RFC minis. There were times when Enya was the only girl on boys’ teams, and she didn’t flinch.
‘We often went to blitzes when there might have been a snigger that there was a girl on our team, but within two or three minutes that snigger was well gone,’ recalls Billy Sullivan, who coached Enya at Carrigaline RFC.
‘There were many blitzes we went to and she was the only girl, but that didn’t bother her. It was water off a duck’s back to Enya. She did her talking on the pitch.’
Enya followed her older brothers, Daniel and Jack, into rugby. It was love at first sight, enjoying the contact and the physicality.
‘I was about eight or so, playing with all the boys, and there were one or two girls,’ Enya said previously. ‘I got stuck in from a young age and loved it. The boys didn’t care whether we were girls or not, they went along with it.’
Billy Sullivan explains that Enya was the constant. Other girls came and went, but the rugby-mad young girl was always there, moving up through the minis ranks and holding her own.
‘From an early age it was obvious that if Enya stuck at it, she could achieve a lot. There was just something about her. It was her attitude. At that level, it wasn't just about ability, it’s about attitude and she had that in abundance,’ Sullivan points out.
‘The fact that she was a girl had no bearing, Enya was part of the group and played all the way up to when she was 13 or so. Back then it was 13s to youths, now it’s 14s, but it was against the rules to have a girl on a boys’ team.
‘Enya did play for Carrigaline at a few blitzes when she was 13,’ he added, before Enya’s journey saw her join Bantry Bay RFC, who had set up girls’ rugby. By this stage, her family had moved back to West Cork, but Enya’s loyalty to Carrigaline rugby remained. Home became Castletownshend – just a short drive outside Skibbereen town – when she was ten years old, but for years her parents would drive Enya up and down to Carrigaline on Saturday mornings for training.
Enya Breen with her sisters Aoife, Shauna and Róisín after Ireland's opening World Cup win over Japan in Northampton.
‘That meant a lot for us in the club, that Enya showed us the loyalty, and everyone here is so proud of what she has achieved since she started out with Carrigaline,’ Sullivan added, noting her try-scoring impact against Japan in Ireland’s Rugby World Cup opener.
‘I can still picture the smile on her face when she played with us, and to see her score the try against Japan was brilliant. Enya was in the right place at the right time,’ her former coach said. It was during those formative years, holding her own on the rugby pitch against the boys, that she caught the rugby bug. There was no stopping Enya from here.
When she was 12 years old, Enya was a Munster mascot for the Heineken Cup clash with Edinburgh in Thomond Park in November 2011. Now 26, the Munster star is one of the team's best players, an Irish international with over 30 caps, and has also captained her country on the world stage. The only girl on a boys’ team has made her mark on the field, but, crucially, off it too.
Enya is not alone in making her mark. Her success is already creating a new generation of role models, as fellow West Cork native Abbie Salter-Townshend can attest. Also living in Castletownshend – what’s in the water there? – Abbie started three out of four Munster matches on their way to winning the interpros last weekend.
‘When I started playing rugby, I didn’t know any female players. I was looking up to the men’s Munster team. From growing up, Peter Stringer was a massive idol of mine,’ Abbie says on this week’s Star Sport Podcast, but now young girls and boys in West Cork have female rugby players to look up to.
Like Laura Guest of Clonakilty, a veteran of three Women’s Rugby World Cups, women's rugby has a platform in this region. The exploits of Enya and Abbie join the dots from West Cork to the big stages.
‘I do a bit of coaching with Munster. I was at the Bandon School of Excellence camp in Bandon Grammar a couple of weeks ago and just to coach girls between 13 and 17 who are talking about watching our games, coming to our games and looking to us, it’s such a nice feeling to be that person I didn’t have when I started,’ Abbie adds.
This impact cannot be underestimated. Enya’s former school, Castletownshend NS, shared a social media post to wish their past pupil the best of luck at the World Cup in England. One sentence jumps out: ‘you are a true inspiration for future generations.’
After scoring contributions off the bench in the wins against Japan and Spain, Enya will hope to feature in Ireland’s final pool game against New Zealand this Sunday. Again, she won’t be fazed, just like she wasn’t when she was the only girl in a rugby team full of boys.
