Eliza, can you outline how the Player Pathway programme will impact the Women and Girls' game in Ulster?
Moving into the new season, we are going to see further investment and development in our Women and Girls' Pathway programme. Within our new youth League and Cup structures, we’ve seen a huge increase in our participation levels that has in turn increased the talent within our Pathway Programme.
We have trained IRFU Talent Flaggers that are viewing youth and adult games weekly and flagging potential players that will enter into the pathway.
Throughout the 12 month programme of support, we develop players within U16 and U18 7s rugby, and within the 15 a side game we have programmes in U16 RDS, U18 Girls, Emerging Talent Squad and finally our Ulster Rugby Senior Women’s Squad.
How will the Pathway help with developing talent?
Within the pathway it's not only important for us to develop these players technically and physically, but emotionally and mentally for moving into performance environments. This season we created a new under 16s Regional Development Squad with the increase in talent coming through the province.
What are you hoping to achieve with the Pathway programme?
For us, the measure of success isn’t just about winning and losing, it's about the development of our players moving through the pathway and performance environments.
Players such as Ireland internationals Neve Jones, India Daley, Sadhbh McGrath and Kathryn Dane have progressed through our youth Pathway and are excelling at the top flight at the moment. The aim is to keep finding talent across the province and helping to nurture them for a career at the top level.