Neve Jones has had a rugby ball in her hand since she could walk. Her dad had both her and her brother playing rugby in the living room, tackling each other from a young age. Around the age of 6 or 7, Neve went along to her hometown club, Ballymena to play mini rugby with the boys until she reached secondary school, when she was no longer able to play with the boys. At the time, youth girls’ rugby wasn’t an option, much to her dismay, so rugby took a back seat for a couple of years.
Fast-forward three years and Neve was back playing in a summer camp as the only girl. Her mum was handed the contact details for someone at Malone Rugby Club, and the rest is history. Neve joined a small but growing girls’ youth section, where she was introduced to coach, Ross Ferguson.
“You’ve got such a wide variety of skill-sets at that level,” says Ferguson. “There are always a couple of players who stand out. She was immediately one of those players. Straight away, you knew that she was an excellent player who understood the game.”
Those early days of rough-and-tumble with her brother in the living room were the beginnings of what made her tackling and physicality key strengths of her game, even at age 15.
Ferguson recalls: “As a coach, one of the hardest things was to teach girls the physical side of the game and the bravery. Neve had those in spades!
“I saw a stat at the weekend that she topped the table for tackles made before Round 4 of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations. She’s been like that since she was a kid – she never missed a tackle.”
📖 𝙏𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯 (𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧)
— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) April 25, 2022
1. A player who makes an opponent fall to the ground in order to stop them running.
2. Neve Jones.
Get your 🎟 for #IREvSCO 👉 https://t.co/7Je9QGZKXE #TikTokW6N | #NothingLikeIt pic.twitter.com/u0IRYdP3Tx
Former Ireland centre, Grace Davitt played alongside Jones and coached her at senior level at Malone RFC. “On the pitch, she never stops and has a phenomenal work-rate. You see her now driving a player backwards in the Six Nations and think, “yes, that’s Neve!”, Davitt says proudly.
“She’s small in stature but one of the first things I noticed about her was her tackle technique which is brilliant. She gets low and gets in a good position. Her leg drive and fight to get people to ground and drive them back to make a positive tackle is huge.
“I really admired that in her because it was something I really liked doing as someone who is small as well. It made my life easier as a coach because she was so strong, and everyone took that lead from her with big hits.”
Jones was identified early as a leader and a motivator of the players around her and was made captain of the Malone youth team by Ferguson. “Neve was so supportive of the girls around her; always encouraging them,” he says. “She spent her Saturdays baking so that after a game on Sunday, there were treats for everyone - her match preparations started on a Saturday afternoon! That tells you what kind of person she is, that she is thinking about other people as well as being a great player.”
Davitt adds, “She isn’t hard on other players and is very open and supportive of them, as well as new people coming in. She will support everyone around her.”
Neill Alcorn, currently Head Coach of the Deloitte Ulster Senior Women’s team, has been part of Neve’s journey since she was picked for Ulster 18s at age 16. “She was a stand-out player from the start; she had all the attributes of either being a back-rower or a front-row player.
“She played a year young and was outstanding then. You could see there was something bright coming from her and that she would develop further.”
Alcorn also notes the 23-year-old’s physicality as a point-of-difference, and that she works to improve other areas of her game. “She’s unbelievable when it comes to her one-on-one tackling and work around the breakdown. She always asks to work on her weaknesses too, whether that’s through video analysis or in one-to-one sessions.
“Her skillset is brilliant from a hooker perspective. She has really worked on her line-out throwing, which you can see from this year’s Six Nations, it has paid massive dividends for her. She has done so much work on her own without people knowing. She would constantly be out practising and making small tweaks to her game, which is fantastic.”
In 2016, alongside Vicky Irwin – who was also selected for Ireland’s Six Nations squad this year – Neve co-captained Ulster U18s to the Inter-Pro Grand Slam: a stand-out memory for Alcorn.
Her leadership role would continue through to senior level, from day one. Ross Ferguson explains, “Jonny Rowan coached our senior women’s team and Neve had just turned 18. It was her debut game and Jonny made her captain straight away.
“People asked, “who is this kid and how is she captain?”. Ten minutes into that game, everyone realised why! I knew she was going to go far. When she came up into the women’s side, she just immediately belonged there.”
Ferguson and Davitt both credit Neve for playing a crucial role in Malone Women’s promotion to the All-Ireland League for the 2019-20 season. “Neve raised the bar when she moved into senior rugby and that year, we won the Junior Cup and Qualifying League the following year,” Ferguson comments.
“We won the Ulster Division 1 and Junior Cup again before moving up to the AIL. You bring one player in, and she raises everyone’s game. That’s credit to her because people wanted to get better all of a sudden because she inspired them. She was a big impact.”
Davitt adds. “She was one of our key players to get into the All-Ireland League and she was a stand-out player for Ulster. She won the Rising Star Award in that first year of the AIL which was a great driver for her. We were in a tough position as a club trying to find our feet in that league. Sometimes it’s difficult to be seen when you are losing games, but she kept to task to move forward.”
This proved to be the springboard for Neve to get noticed at international level, and in 2020, she earned her call-up to the Ireland Six Nations squad before COVID-19 struck, delaying her debut until October that year. This came as no surprise to any of her former coaches.
“I one hundred percent knew Neve would go on to represent her country playing rugby,” Ross says. “There are a couple of girls from that year – Beth McDowell has played for Ulster as well. She and Neve played U18 Sevens and both stood out. We had a pre-match lunch for one of the men’s games and we invited Neve’s mum Dorothy, and Beth’s parents to celebrate Ulster U18s winning the Inter-Pro in 2016. We were queuing up for lunch and they had the Honours board up in the big hall with all our internationals. I jokingly said to the parents, “Who will be the first girl to go up?”. Neve is the first girl to go up! It will be a nice challenge for the two players to push on after being so successful in youth rugby.”
Neill Alcorn continues, “Neal Johnston \[Rugby Development Officer at Ulster Rugby\] and I both thought when we coached Neve at U18s-level, “This girl will play for Ireland.” We knew she had all the attributes to get there, and she hasn’t proved us wrong!”
Grace Davitt agrees: “Sometimes there are talented players out there who play at that level, but what happens is they aren’t willing to put in that hard work. Because Neve is such a hard worker, she has the talent and mindset to be better and keep fighting. She doesn’t rest on her laurels. From that personality aspect, you knew she was going to keep driving to be better.”
Since making her international debut, the Ballymena native has made nine appearances for her country, and has been the starting hooker in all of this year’s TikTok Women’s Six Nations campaign. In January, she decided to make the move to Gloucester-Hartpury to develop her game further in the Premier 15s league. Her coaches are delighted to see her grasp the number 2 Ireland jersey with both hands.
“It's so pleasing to see her thriving in the Six Nations,” Alcorn remarks. “Over the years, Neve has done so much unseen work and sacrificed a huge amount to get to where she is. It holds her in good stead, and she is still so young. Hopefully, it continues and it’s great to see her strengths being highlighted.”
“I was commentating for Ireland’s game against Italy and she scored her first try,” recalls Davitt. “I was hoping the commentator wouldn’t come back to me because I got really emotional watching her score. You feel so happy for her to reach the pinnacle. It has all paid off and I’m so happy for her that she is reaping the rewards of all her hard work.”
Neve is now a source of inspiration for young girls across Ireland, as Ferguson declares: “My daughters both came to training with me when they were really young and came to games with me. Neve was great with them. At school, I remember they had to talk about their influences and inspirations – both girls did a project on Neve Jones. Not popstars or footballers; it was a girl from Ballymena who is accessible and has motivated them, and they have just been selected in the Ulster U18 Sevens squad. That is just something she does and hopefully she will continue to do so.”
As for her future, Davitt is confident. “It's hard to reach that level, but it’s even harder to stay there. For Neve to get her start in this year’s TikTok Women’s Six Nations and to keep improving every game, that’s the toughest thing.
“Getting that try and seeing her set-piece work so well against Italy was amazing. It was another string to her bow after making so many tackles the week before. I’ve no doubt that she has many years ahead of her and go from strength to strength.”
Get your tickets for Ireland's final showdown with Scotland
Ireland are back on home soil for their final 2022 TikTok Women's Six Nations game versus Scotland at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday (8pm kick-off).
Don't miss it!
This event is supported by Tourism NI.