Saskia flying the Wycherley rugby flag high

THE day before Saskia Wycherley was presented with a Paudie Palmer West Cork Sports Star youth quarterly award, the Bantry teenager trained with the Munster women’s senior rugby team for the first time.

‘It was amazing,’ she beamed.

‘It’s a different standard altogether. To be coached by the best, Niamh Briggs, Fiona Hayes, these women are my role models.’

It’s an indicator of the 18-year-old’s rise that she has been drafted into the Munster senior set-up, but the talent and the pedigree is undoubtedly there.

Saskia was honoured with a West Cork Sports Star youth award in recognition of her achievements this year – she captained Ireland at the U18 Women’s Six Nations Festival in April and was also co-captain of the Munster U18 women’s team in the interpros. Captaining both providence and country is evidence of Saskia’s growing reputation in rugby, but perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised – look at her family’s rugby DNA.

Award winner Saskia Wycherley with, from left, John Paul McNamara (C103 Radio), Helen Wycherley (Celtic Ross Hotel) and Kieran McCarthy (sports editor, The Southern Star).

‘I started playing rugby when I was seven years old and I haven’t stopped,’ she says, and the Bantry Bay RFC player didn’t need to look too far for inspiration; they were all sitting around the kitchen table at home in Coomhola outside Bantry. Her dad Florence, who played rugby with Skibbereen, was involved in setting up the underage club in Bantry. Her grandad had an interest in rugby, too, Saskia points out. Then there are her siblings who all played at some stage. She is the youngest of the clan, with Jason, Gary, Nathan, Fineen, Josh and Latisha all in action at different stages. Two of her brothers, Fineen and Josh, are well-known in Irish rugby circles, both part of Munster’s URC-winning squad, with Fineen also an Irish senior international.

‘I couldn’t have not played rugby!’ Saskia laughs, but she has still had to work incredibly hard to reach the level she has already.

A former Coláiste Pobail Bheantraí student, she now goes to school in Ballincollig because it lessens her travel distance to training; the city to Limerick is 90 minutes less (one way) than the trek from home in Coomhola to Limerick. That time all adds up. Fineen and Josh are based in Limerick now, so there are familiar faces far away from home, and experience to lean on.

‘I played second row during the interpros and in the Six Nations, and coming up towards it I hadn’t played second row in such a long time so to be able to say, “Fineen, you have to remind me how I do this” was so handy,’ Saskia says.

She has followed a different route to her brothers, but her ambition is similar.

‘The goal is always to get a club jersey, get a Munster jersey and get an Ireland jersey,’ Saskia explains. She has already ticked all those boxes even though she’s at the start of her journey. Already the Bantry teen has been involved with Munster Rugby for three years, and now has Irish experience to lean on too. Her target for next season?

‘Get bigger, get stronger, get faster, get more rugby IQ, keep developing, get more experience, and see where it takes me,’ she says. Training with Munster’s best is another step in the right direction.

‘You can see what it can be and where I could be,’ Saskia explains. ‘In my position, Maeve Óg O’Leary and Dorothy Wall, they are the best and at the peak of their career, so to be able to train alongside them, it’s amazing.’

The day after she was presented with her West Cork Sports Star youth quarterly award at the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery, Saskia had an early start from Coomhola, bound for Limerick again. No complaints, she gets on with it. All part of her rugby journey.

• Saskia was presented with a Paudie Palmer West Cork Sports Star youth quarterly award. Talented, young local sportspeople are selected for this award and are then in contention for the overall Paudie Palmer West Cork Sports Star Youth Award.