Interview #12 - Caoimhe Quigley

Hey Caoimhe, all well? Relaxing after the exams no doubt...

Hi there, I'm getting back up to speed after exams now, no rest for the wicked and all that. 

Congrats on getting on the team, tell us how the whole experience has been for you since the trials last year.

Thanks. I've never played for Ireland in the mixed division before, so this season has really been a new experience for me. I really enjoyed the trial; it was nice to play some ultimate at that intense level. I'm really adjusting to the mixed division this season and I'm hoping I can do a good job. I've already learned that you need to be way louder as a girl on a mixed team to play alongside the lads!

You're currently the main handler for the Trinity College women's team, a team with a lot of history and prestige. How did you get involved in the team initially?

I first signed up because a friend of mine had played on the junior open team the previous summer and kept saying how much fun it was and how amazing the tournament had been, so I promised I'd sign up come Fresher's week. I think Heather Barry was a role model as captain that year, she was amazing on the pitch and so enthusiastic the rest of the time, I think she played a really big part in me continuing to play.

This season didn't go to plan with UCC stepping up their game big time to take the Ladies IVs titles in Indoors and Outdoors. What do you think will need to change for next year?

UCC deserve a lot of respect and congratulations for their victory this year, they put so much work in over the last few years working to become such a huge force in ultimate this year. I think they really deserved to win and I hope that next year we can up our game to match them in terms of recruitment, fitness and discipline and take back the trophy.

This will be your second time playing at the U23 level, having played in the Women's division in Florence. How did that week pan out for you personally?

Florence was a tough week emotionally for me, my grandmother passed away on the evening of the opening ceremony and I really had to push myself to make sure I was 100% focused when it came to game time. It was hard, and I had to remind myself of how proud she was that I was going to wear an Ireland jersey and I tried to play for her. I really learned that week that there will always be other stuff going on, but when it comes to game time, you need to prove why you're on the team.

What was/were the main thing(s) you took away from that season?

I think I learned an awful lot during that season, having only been playing a few months when the team started training. Doyler was a fantastic coach, I'm glad we could win a few matches for him. I don't think I could fully appreciate just how much I learned during that season at the time, but I think the main thing I took from that season was knowing that I had the chance to be a great player if I put the work in. 

You took these lessons and applied them with immediate impact, evidently, making the Women's team that went to EUC in Slovenia. How did you find the step up in competition from U23 to Senior level?

There was definitely a big step up in skill level from U23 to the senior women's team, honestly I surprised myself when I made the team! I think having trained with quite a few of the other squad members throughout the year on LMS it became slightly less intimidating. It was a season to try and explore my potential as a player. Being one of the younger members of the team I really just tried not to let the team down and to use the experience to learn as much as I could from playing with such a talented team at such a high level.

That Women's team was full of talent and featured a lot of players from LMS, your current club. Is there anyone on either squad that you look up to and want to play more like?

There are a lot of great players on both squads, I could bore you listing most of the teams in this paragraph saying how wonderful they are, so I'll keep it to three. Liz is a dominating handler, I admire how she beasts her way through zones. She was incredibly reliable throughout the EUC season and as a cutter I found her presence on the pitch really reassuring. Yvonne is a fantastic handler and it was a shame she was injured when we beat GB on our first day in EUC. Luckily she's also an LMS player, so she can still inspire me at training. And last but by no means least, our captain that season Laura is phenomenal. She is such a great athlete and skilled ultimate player. She was absolutely an inspiration during the EUC season on and off the pitch. 

Outside of Ultimate you have the reputation for being an unreal baker. Can the team expect a Irish themed cake to rival that of your past creations? Or would that just be wishful thinking...?

Haha, thanks! I really enjoy baking and I have to say the thought had crossed my mind to make a cake for the team! I'm not sure when for, but I've had a few ideas, maybe something inspired by the jerseys this year. It would be pretty fun to make a cake for team Ireland.

With Windmill in 4 weeks and Toronto not long after that, who do you look forward to playing the most in the upcoming tournaments?

I'm particularly looking forward to Windmill Windup because the last time I was supposed to go the girls beat GB and I missed it sadly. I always look forward to playing GB, because the games are so hard fought and closely contested. I'm looking forward to playing the North American teams, for their great athleticism and skill, and Japan because they have such a unique style of play that's very different to what teams usually play in Europe. 

Lastly, tell us a joke.

 -Knock knock.

-Who's there?

-Listen I'm terrible at jokes, can I just make you a cake instead? 

Yeah... Maybe stick to the ultimate and baking. Thanks for your time and best of luck in the next 10 weeks!

Interview #11 - Alan Fitzpatrick

Hey Al, what's the craic? All done with the exams?

Story, yeah just finished up there, great to be finished. Been a mad busy year.

First off, congrats on making the team. You're the youngest male on the squad but have more experience than most with three years of Juniors experience under your belt. How has your role in this squad changed, if at all?

Ah yeah I was delighted to make the team. This squad is very different to any juniors one I've played on before. I'm surrounded by very talented players, everyone know's what they are expected to bring to the team and we can all rely on each other to do our jobs. For me it's getting Ds on opposition deep receivers and then playing sexy D line offence. 

Tell us about the last three years at Juniors: The highs. The lows. The injuries! The captaincies.

Juniors has been huge for me. There are highs and lows from every year but the stand out high has to be beating Sweden in front of a crowd of Irish supporters last August in Dublin. I sometimes go back and look at the footage or photos from that game, and I get goosebumps every time. 

Poland in 2011 was a bit of a low I suppose. We didn't get any results, but still had a great fun week. Getting injured in game 5 in Germany in 2010 was sickening too. I've always believed that these "Lows" can been seen as skipping stones or stumbling blocks, if you get me. If you let them, they can ruin your season. If you see them as challenges they can make you a better player. It's all mental attitude. 

You've just finished a term as captain of your college team, UCD. How did the season go?

This year was pretty challenging. It takes up a huge amount of time being captain, if it wasn't for my secretary Killian Roche I don't know if Chili-o would still exist!

It was great at the same time though, a huge honour. We tried new things and got some great results. We beat the top 3 teams UCC, Trinity and UL at different stages in the year but unfortunately didn't pull it out at IVs when it mattered. Winning Colours was great, but IVs will always be the big one.

And with a large number of players returning next year what do you think should be the focus for 2013/14?

To win IVs. I think this should always be the focus, there's not point in aiming for 2nd place. It being my final year as well I see it as my last shot at winning an IVs medal. There's also rumours going around about some other college superstars coming to UCD for postgrad degrees next year, so we may have a few tricks up our sleeves come September.

Also recruitment and player development. We did well this year but have to keep improving if we want to be at the top in the coming years. 

You're playing your club ultimate these days with Ranelagh, the reigning All-Ireland Champions, and recently just qualified for EUCR-S (European Club Regionals for those not in the know). Tell us about the qualification process for the qualifying tournament!

In order to qualify we had to prove ourselves by playing Pelt and Rebel. This involved a trip to Limerick a couple of months ago and then a home match against Rebel last month. I was delighted to be selected for the Ranelagh squad to play Rebel and thankfully our hard work since January paid off. We won both matches and now will travel to European qualifiers in August. 

What is next for Ranelagh this season in preparation for EUCR?

Well our next tournament is Tour 1 in London at the end of this month. We'll get to play the top teams from GB and hopefully some from Europe too. I can't wait! Then its tours 2 and 3 before Euro Qualifiers in August. Training every Monday and Wednesday in Gonzaga as always. 

You've played with and against a ton of great players in your career, who are your favourite players to play with? And who did you enjoy playing against the most?

In UCD the likes of Liamo and Wetcrotch; can always rely on them to take down the swill I throw far too often and make big plays on D.

With Ranelagh its great to learn from the older heads; Nialler, Keith Hodgson, Britboy and the likes. They know their stuff and are more than willing to pass their knowledge onto us young lads.

Having said that, its difficult to single players out to be honest I just like playing frisbee, and constantly trying to be the best at it, doesn't really matter who its with. 

As far as opposition I just enjoy playing against the best players around. It makes you improve your own game a lot. Cian Quinn at Ranelagh practice and Donal Murray for UCC/Rebel stand out for me. 

Former Irish teammate, Matthew Feely, wants to know how the craic compares to the Juniors teams you've played on before? I would imagine it's more fun now that he's not around...

Yeah the last few years of juniors has been serious craic. A serious bunch of LADs. I'm delighted to say that the mixed team is no different. The likes of Oisin and Keith are gas, as well as Aoife B. Also if you ever get Sarah Cummins and Jen Cooper on their own together they're proper insane, in a good way of course. 

And sure Feely will be in Toronto anyway, we'll still be having the bants. 

Windmill is just four weeks away. What are you looking forward to most about this famous tournament?

Playing lots of competitive games is going to be awesome. Tour was great and Windmill is going to be even better. Also it's my first Windmill so just taking in everything and experiencing the famous tournament will be great. 

Outside Ultimate you're a pretty decent singer/musician, will you be bringing the guitar to Toronto for your banter in the evenings? Should we expect any more covers like last year's hit "A Thousand Miles"?

Ah I dunno about that now. Can't afford to bring the guitar, I'm broke as it is. As far as upcoming world class music videos I won't say too much. I'm actually sworn to secrecy about upcoming projects, but let's just say that a certain T. Swift may be involved. 

I'd say the young teen fan base can't wait for your next cover. Who do you want to play most at Worlds?

GB. Love playing them, we're catching up every year, and it won't be long until we beat them. In fact I reckon we will beat GB this year if we come up against them in Toronto, and there's no reason we shouldn't be the top European team at worlds. We're bloody good. 

Finally: Make us laugh!

A man goes to the doctor for his annual check-up, and the doctor tells him, "You need to stop masturbating."

The man asks, "Why?"

The doctor replies, "Because I'm trying to examine you"

A classic! Cheers bud, enjoy the rest of the season and best of luck!

Interview #9 - Richard Buggy (Coach)

Hey Buggy, you're the first coach to get interviewed - hurray! - tell us how you got into ultimate.
The credit has to go to Dangerous Dave. I’d known him for about 5 years and when he went to DCU he kept going on about Ultimate. So I signed up in DIT with no real intentions of playing but I went to whacking day, won it and thought hey this might be worth keeping up.


How has the ultimate scene in Ireland changed since you started?
The biggest change has to be clubs. When I started in 2006 there was only a handful of clubs which at the time looked great to us college nobodies, but none of them trained and wouldn’t stand a chance against the likes of Rebel, Ranelagh, LMS and Jabba today. Also the increased number of events has been great. When I started the only official IFDA events were Outdoors Open Intervarsities along with Indoor Open and Woman’s (barely). Now between All Ireland’s and Intervarsities there are 11 events.


So you've played your college ultimate with DIT and your club ultimate with Jabba, who's strengths traditionally lie in their Mixed team. How was the club developed since it's beginning?
Like most teams at the time Jabba started back in 2007 as a fun laid back team with no dreams of competitiveness. We began training regularly not because we wanted to win but more because we enjoyed each other’s company and training was a great way to get together each week. However entering xEUCF in 2009 set the club onto a different path. Since then there hasn’t been any massive changes. Just each year we add new players and step things up to a higher level with improving results every year since.


Last year saw the peak of the development of Jabba with 3 teams entered in Mixed All-Irelands with Jabba1 taking the Gold. Tell us what that felt like after years of training and commitment with the same bunch of players to finally achieve that goal.
It truly was the greatest achievement of my career. To win Mixed All Ireland’s, the clubs aim for 4 years, in our home training ground and for me where I grew up. And for nearly half the squad including myself it was the first tournament of any kind we had won. For years our opponents had complimented us for all our training and recruitment but finally they were able to compliment us for being the best team out there.

All Ireland Mixed Champions 2012

What are the goals for the club this year?
Win the All Ireland’s treble. Our fitness campaign started in early March. Mixed All Ireland’s teams are picked and we’re training 4 times a week. Once we defend our mixed title we’re going to take the same level of commitment into the Open and Woman’s season.


You were part of the U23 Mixed team that went to Florence in 2010. How did that week go for you personally?
It was a tough week for everyone. The now famous Florence heat obviously caused nothing but problems. Our team was lacking big game experience, handlers and preparation. The end result was we finished last without a victory but looking back at that team we all learned so much from it and while it wasn’t very strong at the time, out of it was come a multitude of Intervarsities and All Ireland’s winners, college and club captains and senior level Ireland players.


And in 2011 you were a member of the very successful Irish Mixed team that went to EUC in Maribor. Tell us about that tournament from your team's perspective.
A completely different week for me. I’d gone from being the team’s sole experienced handler in 2010 to being the safety keep my head down wing handler in 2011 and it was a role I reveled in. Our O line was incredibly efficient at putting away scores first time and sure if we got into trouble we just flung it to Fiona. It was a joy to watch and the end result was we equalled the highest ever finish achieved by an Irish team. Made all the sweeter by the numerous doubters we had before the tournament.


Is this Irish U23 team the first team in which you've been involved with the coaching setup?
Yes. I’d had done a small bit of coaching with DIT and Jabba but nothing near this level.

How was training been going so far?
It’s been good but I wouldn’t say easy. Having the team formed and training earlier than any Irish national team in history has been a huge asset and the level of commitment of those at training sessions has been great. Obviously with the 3 coaches and 2 captains all coming from Jabba the
team may be borrowing a system or two from the club and getting everybody on the same wave length has been tricky at times but it’s all starting to come together nicely.


Do you think the U23 mixed division is stronger this time around? How do you think the team will fair?
It’s a completely different division. The last U23’s was only announced in January and got a venue in February so everything was rushed. The end result was an 8 team division with only European teams. This time around disappointingly there are only 9 teams in the mixed division but the giants of the sport are all there. USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, GB, Colombia, Austria and Germany. It really is a who’s who of Ultimate and on history you would have to say Ireland and Austria are in for a long week. But what people won’t realised is this Irish team, along with the Open team are very well prepared and I think that making the semi finals should be the team’s goal.


Windmill Windup is the next warm up tournament for the team, having been to this tournament before, what can the team expect from this tournament? With a bit of momentum behind them from Mixed Tour should the team be more confident going into this week in June?
Windmill is the perfect step up from Tour. The team will get long games which a vital considering the bizarre systems we use in this sport with people only playing full length games at international events. The schedule at windmill ensures that all bar maybe your first game should be a close contest and best of all you’ll get 3 days of play and will have to learn how to conserve your body for the extra day of matches. So long as everyone behaves themselves and gets to bed good and early I can see the team fighting for medals.

You're known to make a good highlight reel (and lowlight reel) of the tournaments you've attended. Can the Irish fans expect something similar post Toronto?
The camera is coming to Toronto for sure and hopefully if our accommodation has decent internet I might even upload some game footage during the week to keep the ravenous information craving hordes at home happy. As for highlights videos, wait and see. I never give anything away.

Always the comedian

Lastly, tell us a joke
Brodie Smith

I'd say he'll appreciate the support... Thanks for your time Richard!

Interview #10 - Estelle Murchan

Bonjour Estelle, ça va?
Salut Hogi! Ça va très bien, merci. 

I could try do this whole interview in French but I would embarrass myself immensely. Congrats on making the team! This is your second involvement with an Irish team, tell us about your WJUC experience last year.
Haha so I won’t let you embarrass yourself, I shall continue in English. Thank you, I was delighted to have been selected to play with an Irish team for the second year in a row. WJUC 2012 was such a good week. I’d only started playing ultimate four months before the trial and was nearly not going to try out but then I decided sure I may as well give it a go! And I was happy I did, as I got to experience playing a high level of ultimate against teams from all around the world and I learned a lot about different aspects of ultimate during the week which I can carry on with me while playing on this team. 

You finished the week strong by beating Finland, a team you had lost to earlier in the week. That must have felt pretty good at the end of a tough campaign.
Definitely. After having lost to them earlier in the week, we wanted nothing more than to beat them. There were a couple of teams we had to play twice but I’m glad we got a second chance at playing Finland. I felt we were pretty even with them the first time we played them, but we just didn’t get the scores in the end. So in our last game of the tournament we got to play them again. We knew we had to come out fighting and give it everything we had, and we did, and ended up beating them on universal point. It was a really great feeling to finish the tournament on a high like that. 

How are you finding the training so far? Is it a big step up or similar to what you're used to with the Juniors last year?
It sure is, not the same kind of intensity as last year, but I like it. Having made this team just shortly after everyone else, I’ve missed out on two of the first training weekends but I’ve done my best to catch up on fitness and it’s definitely tougher than it was for juniors. The team set-up is also very different having an O-Line and D-Line, which is nice, we didn’t have that last year. In our trainings this year we do a lot of our drills separately which is good as you get more used to playing with the players on your own line. 

You play your college ultimate with DCU, how did you get involved in the first place?
Well I guess I just wanted to try something new, I saw a Frisbee lying around on clubs and socs day and I thought “wouldn’t it be fun to throw that thing around”. I’d heard it was really quite enjoyable to play, so I signed up for it. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, but myself and a friend decided to come along to the trainings and and after a couple of tournaments I really enjoyed it, so I just stuck around since then. 

And now you've become ladies captain, congrats! Do you think you'll take much of what you're learning here with the U23s and implement it in the DCU team next year?
Cheers! Of course. I mean playing juniors last year and being on the U23 mixed team this year is hugely beneficial to me. We learn so many different tactics and forms of play which  I can take with me. As we don’t have an official coach I guess I’m going to have to be the one teaching the other girls! Also playing on a women’s team last year and a mixed team this year is another advantage I feel as I’m learning entirely different things that I can bring with me to the DCU womens’s team and playing DCU mixed also.We only had six players at women’s indoor, we were mixed with a few Trinity girls for Siege and couldn’t even send down a team for women’s outdoors, so hopefully we can recruit a few more girls for next year and maybe try and win something!   

You're part of the D line which perhaps over achieved in some respects (no complaints though!) at Mixed Tour in Cardiff, what do you think contributed most to the cohesion and performance of the D line that weekend?
Oh yeah, not complaining about that! This was our first tournament as a team we didn’t really know what to expect. We didn’t come out for the wins but to learn from mistakes and to stay positive really no matter what the outcome and just playing with teammates in general. I think we performed exceptionally well as a D-Line over the weekend considering we hadn’t played together as a team before. I think we just stayed calm really, and didn’t get too cocky when we were ahead and that helped the flow of our game. 

With Mixed Tour behind you and with Windmill and Toronto fast approaching, what are you working on most to get ready for the challenges ahead?
Fitness I’d say will play a huge role in any of our coming games, especially with Toronto being a week long tournament. We can’t afford to be slowing our game down because we’re tired. I’m also going to work on a lot of throwing a catching. Generally just being fit, staying healthy and try not get injured anytime before now and Toronto. 

Before playing Ultimate, you played a bit of camogie. Do you still play?
Yeah I’ve played camogie for about 10 years, and did a bit of athletics as well. I still play but not as much since I’ve been playing so much ultimate, like Oisin said, I too find myself putting a force on players or occasionally asking people do they want to ‘throw’ before a game!  

Do you find (m)any similarities between the two sports?
They are two completely different sports, I played camogie as a competitive sport, then when I got to college I and started playing ultimate it was really just for the fun side of it, I really didn’t think of playing it competitively but after having played WJUC and playing U23s this year I learned to take it a little more seriously. Coming from an athletic background helped a lot in playing ultimate, but apart from that I can’t see too many similarities, which is good, it’s a nice change. 

Just to finish with the usual closing questions; Who do you want to play most in Toronto?
Any team we'd come up against I'd be happy to play, but it'd be nice to play GB and have an Irish team beat them! I'd also like to play the likes of Australia, USA, or Colombia, and of course, Canada and maybe even try beat them on their home ground, that'd be pretty sweet. 

Give us a laugh.
How do you organise a space party?
You planet. 

Merci Estelle, bonne chance avec le reste de la campagne

Interview #8 - Rob Holland

Hey Rob, how're things?
Things are grand, Hogi. I'm old so don't have exams, but trudging away with the Masters.

Congrats on a big weekend at Tour followed by a big weekend at Intervarsities! Tell us briefly about your mixed tour experiences.

Mixed Tour was an incredible weekend. I wasn't completely expecting the cohesiveness that we showed on the pitch to occur so naturally, but in the first game we clicked and it was actually really easy to play with the team. We beat our seed by 11 places, which is more than any other team at the tournament, so I feel like it was a successful experience! I do have some good memories like Niall skying a load of people and Oisín gunning it deep every time Kieth got the disc. There were also many a decent grab by Estelle and Sarah, and I scored a Callaghan which was nice. Losing the last game and dropping a would-be Callaghan were less enjoyable though.

This is the first time that the whole  squad (or almost all of it) has played together competitively. Is there anyone you especially enjoyed playing with?
Everybody on the team was fantastic to play with. Playing defence, all seven players on the pitch have to shut down their opponent. And considering how many turns we did get, I'd say everyone did a tremendous job. It was also fun to slot them in consistently too, with everybody playing a role.

Rob gets horizontal

And last weekend we saw your college team Trinity College become runners up at the Irish Intervarsities tournament. Was the weekend a good one despite falling just short of first place?
Yeah it was a bittersweet weekend. In once sense it was rewarding to have overcome the teams that finished third, fourth, and fifth on the way to the final, but being second place on a Sunday evening is not pleasant. Having been beaten by UCC in the final last year we were really geared up for it, but they are an impressive team and took the trophy back down to Cork with them. That being said, Trinity played well and we were especially happy to have beaten UCD in a kind of ridiculous match (from which there's a lovely photo of me jumping into you).

Tell us, how did you get into Ultimate?
Sam Meighan's ma is friend's with Donal Murphy's ma (two Irish Ultimate players' mothers) and told her that Sam plays Ultimate. Donal's a friend from school and he produced a disc one day in fifth or sixth year. So I was aware of the sports existence. Then a group of us played summer league a couple of years ago for the laugh (Deco and Stein were actually on our team) and I joined the Trinity Ultimate club and hung around.

You've not played as long as some of the other squad members but you have played with Irish powerhouses Trinity, OCS, Broc and Ranelagh - some achievement in a short time. What are some of your highlights from the last 3 years?
I always find playing with Trinity to be very enjoyable. With the people there and ultimate it is a great place to play, with IVs last year probably being my favourite tournament to date. Also, foreign tournaments are always particularly memorable as highlights. I had hardly been playing a year before playing two Tours with OCS and the final of All-Irelands with Broc so they were incredible learning experiences. The Ranelagh performance at All-Irelands last year was also pretty good, coming third with the second team, and I'm really looking forward to this year.

Again, not vertical

In June the team will travel to Windmill. After your experiences at Tour do you think the team will continue to get results? Or will you find tougher match ups here?
I'm not entirely sure what to expect from the teams at Windmill. Having never been I don't know what the standard is like, but I think it's safe to assume that the games will be tough. We'll play each team as they come and I hope we expect to put in an honest account of ourselves.

Are there any teams attending Windmill you want to play more than others?
I'm actually not sure of the other teams going to Windmill, but it doesn't really bother me who we play. I think Germany are going so that would be exciting, but I may have made that up.

Describe an ideal week for the team at U23s in July.
It's really sunny and warm and there's lemonade and we win absolutely everything. Realistically it will be tough but I'd like to think that we would reproduce our performance from Tour and take a few big shcalps. And I don't get injured.


Teammate Declan Grogan has a question about  your defensive mindset. He asks "what makes you so motivated to go get the D every time?". I guess as an O-line player we have to explain these things to him!
Making lives difficult and messing up the other team is fun. It sounds kinda jerky, but it's true! It's a feels great when you prevent someone from getting what they want for the benefit of your team. I enjoy marking handlers because it's generally considered easy to "just dump it", but if you mess with the resets the other team gets flustered and it is really really fun to watch.

Robert Problems

You've an unfortunate history of freak injuries. Can you contain your recklessness long enough to "smash it" at Windmill and Toronto?
Ha, I'd like to think of it as premeditated recklessness, but with commitments I have now I think I'll most definitely have to be more prudent than before. I do get injured a lot. I think I could only play at around 5 club training sessions last year. But I'm currently feel healthy and intend on seeing out the summer that way. 


The usual closing questions: Who do you want to play most in Toronto?
Canada. It would be nice to play the hosts and if they play as physically as I think they will, it would be a decent match.


Make us laugh.
Two silk worms were in a race. They ended up in a tie.


Cheers Rob. Best of luck with the next few months!
Cheers, buddy.

Interview #7 - Anne Leahy

Hey Anne, how are you?
Hey Hogi, I'm great. Really not pleased that exams are fast approaching though!


Firstly, congrats on making the team! This is your second international team appearance though as you captained the Irish Junior women in 2011. Tell us about that week in Poland
Thanks, I'm very happy to be on the team! Poland was a huge amount of fun. We were a very young and inexperienced team but I think we made up for it in raw energy. EYUC was the first tournament most of the girls had played, so it really was a learning curve but that meant that every small achievement was incredibly exciting. I was very proud to see us improve and actually start to play as a team over the course of a week and beating Poland on universe point will always be a very fond memory!

At Tour 2 weeks ago the O-line saw limited game time due to the good form of the D line, but despite that did you learn anything that you will take forward for the rest of the season?
Tour was great, I had forgotten just how much fun it was to put on an Irish Jersey and go out and cheer for your country. Having been training with the team for so long it was a much needed incentive to stay focused and enthusiastic. I have never played on a team with O and D lines before, it is very different but I do feel like I have a very definite role on the team because of it. What I'll take most from Tour is the need to always stay switched on while you're on the sideline as it can be difficult to come onto the pitch and play clinical offence if you haven't been on for 6 or 7 points. 


And outside Irish setups you're the captain of the Trinity College women's team. How did the year go for you and the team?
The year was more challenging than I would have hoped. Disappointingly recruitment did not go as planned and having lost a few of our big players last year we struggled to find some of the same motivation that has been there in the past. However we had some strong performances and are in a good position to take back some trophies next year!

Would you deem it a successful year as captain despite some close losses?
Losing varsities was hard! But this year we lost to a very deserving UCC team and had a couple of great matches along the way so that definitely did ease the pain. I'm not sure I would classify it as a super successful year as Captain but it was great to see our rookies improve hugely and I certainly really enjoyed it. 

You play club ultimate for Dublin based LMS. How much has training with them since Juniors developed your game?
Since I have started playing I have been very lucky to be consistently training with really great players. LMS is full of very talented players with loads of experience, it has been a huge advantage to be able to learn from them, they're also just great craic.

What's next for you this season? Mixed All-Ireland's? Windmill? Cologne with LMS again?
I will most likely play Mixed All-Ireland's but next definite tournament on the calender is Windmill. I'm excited about that as I've never been before and have heard many stories of how amazing it is, looking forward to good fun and lots of high level ultimate. Sadly I'm not going to Cologne this year (definitely one of my favourite tournaments), I'm sure LMS will smash it up though and I know that there are lots of people vying for my place as winner of the crap-olympics!

O-Line can play good D too

What are you most looking forward to about the rest of the season?
I love playing with this team. I'm really looking forward to going to Windmill and Toronto and playing hard and fighting to get that win. This team has huge potential and I want to see us live up to it.


Fellow team mate, Oisín says "This team is mighty craic and we're always able to have a good laugh in our downtime. So who do you think is the funniest on the O-Line?"
Think I'm going to have to go with Keith, he does try!

Are there any teams you want to play in Toronto more than others? Any grudge matches?
Playing GB is always exciting, but I really do want to go to Toronto and play against the best so its got to be the US and Canada. If Poland or the Czech Republic happen to sign up I would love to smash them and get some pay back for Juniors.

Tell us a joke, Anne!
(I apologise in advance)
What do you call a couch, a table and a chair made out of plants?
Ferniture. 
Oof, that was painful. Thanks for your time. Best of luck and enjoy the rest of the season.
Cheers Hogi!

Interview #6 - Liam Fletcher (C)

A man of many talents is Liam

Hey Liam, all well?

Doing well thanks!..taking a well deserved break from final year nonsense to do this..

Along with Emer and the coaches, you guys have put together a pretty tidy team for Worlds. Talk us through the process from getting captaincy to selecting your panel.

Emer was the driving force for putting together the initial bid for the captaincy. It was her idea and she put all the work into the bid (and has continued to do most of the work throughout), I kind of just went along with it! We selected Ian French as our head coach because he has coached us both for the past few years and we knew he would be the right person for the job. When we were selecting the panel, we wanted to make a team as opposed to a group of the 'best' players. Before the trial, we made a list of specific positions and we set about filling these with the most suitable players. It made the selection process a bit easier for me as people were competing for different positions as opposed to one of the 20 or so in the squad.

Ah she does great work altogether! Last weekend saw the team have its first warm up tournament, UK Mixed Tour 1. What was the team's approach to the weekend? Were results high on your list of priorities?

We treated it as just that - a warm up tournament. We wanted to go and just play our game and learn. Results really didn't matter, as long as we were learning form the games and staying positive.

How did Day 1 go? Where were you seeded and what was the competition like?
Day one went really well. We were probably under seeded a bit so our group games could have been more competitive. Our D-line preformed amazingly, keeping our O-line off the pitch for most of the day but when they did finally come on they calmly put away the score.

You can't stop me!
Liamo rips a disc down over 2 defenders and a teammate

And what changed, if anything, on Day 2?

Day 2 for the most part went the same way as Day 1. Our games were a little closer with teams like Golden Ants having very experienced players and different zone defences causing problems to both of our lines, but in the end we came out on top in the first two games. Our last game of the weekend was against a strong team in Magic Toast. They had a very experienced team full of players from some of the biggest clubs in the uk. They played very physical defence and rattled us with their rough marks. We traded for most of the game but in the end lost it 14-12.

So you came away with just the one loss in the last game. That's great going! What do the team need to work on to improve from here?

Yeah it was great. I think it was the best outcome for the team. Everyone will remember the feeling of losing that tight game and it will hopefully spur them on in their training and fitness over the coming months. I think the mental part of our game is a big aspect we need to work on. We let teams get in our heads at times, especially in the last game and it affected our performance.  

Next up is Windmill Windup in June. How do you expect the team to get on?

I think Windmill will be a great challenge for the team. The format should help us get the competitive games we need, especially for the O-line, who didn't get much pitch time in Cardiff. We're very excited to play some of the top mixed teams in Europe at such an amazing tournament. Again, results won't be very important to us, we'll just be looking to keep building until the main event in July. 

Liam skys two UCC defenders
(one being Irish teammate Oisín)

You've had some success in the Mixed division before playing with some strong outfits in the past, UCD and Jabba to be specific. Tell us about your 2012 Mixed season.

The 2012 season was incredible. For UCD, we had a really strong, experienced core of players and it just kind of came together on the day. We only had a couple of mixed training sessions before hand so we weren't incredibly well prepared but the talent in our team gave us the confidence and belief that we coud win. It was great to win the trophy at ours as well and to have UCD alumni come out to spur us on in the final.

Jabba's 2012 season was a completely different story. The club as a whole worked exceptionally hard all year, often training twice on Saturday and at least once during the week. It was amazing to field 3 competitive teams, filled mostly by people who attend these numerous training sessions. To finally lift the trophy that the club have chased for a few years was unbelievable. I look forward to defending the title next month.

Something we haven't done before, but might make a trend of, is asking the public to ask the team questions. What one UCD and Jabba teammate would like to know is: 

Are there similarities between captaining an Irish team and last year's UCD team, as both team had/have high expectations both internally and externally?

Ian French coached both teams so I guess they have a very similar playing styles / mentality. Another similarity is the level of experience. At the college level, you always have various degrees of experience ranging from beginners to people playing for years. On this Irish team there are huge fluctuations in level of playing experience. There are people who have played juniors, u23 or senior ultimate (with some having played all 3!) internationally and then there are people such as myself who have never been lucky enough to represent our country. 

As far as captioning goes they are quite similar teams, even sharing a few players from last year's UCD team, but the circumstances are very different.  Representing your country always carries a certain weight of expectations and I hope I can lead the team to fufill these.

Standard question: Who do you want to play/beat most in Toronto?

I want to play everyone to be honest! I know that every team there will be top quality so they will all be great opponents. 

Tell us your best joke.

'Doctor, I can't stop singing 'Sex Bomb''.

'That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome' he said.

'Is it common?' I asked. 

'It's not unusual' he replied.

Cheers Liam, best of luck with the rest of the season.