She’s only 22 and she has only played 15 Tests, but Aoife Wafer’s name stands out above all others in the Ireland team to play France in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final (Sandy Park, Exeter, kick-off 1pm).
Of course, this is largely because of her long-awaited return from knee surgery in July. But it’s not just that. When the former Irish player Jenny Murphy underlined the importance of Wafer’s return by simply describing her as “world class” on Second Captains this week, it wasn’t remotely wide of the mark.
After all, Wafer has been named on the World Dream Team and was also the RPI’s Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the year in 2024. That all came before her coronation as the 2025 Six Nations Player of the Championship.
She earned the latter honour despite missing the last-day loss to Scotland. In four games, Wafer scored four tries, which was the joint highest for a forward. She made 70 carries – the most of any player in the tournament – for a staggering 424.7 metres and beat 17 defenders, the second highest of any forward.
Her two tries inspired the 36-10 statement win over Australia in Belfast at the start of last season, as did her two early tries in the ensuing win over New Zealand at WXV1 in Vancouver – powering over first from a tap penalty and then off a five-metre scrum.
While this team has strong carriers in Brittany Hogan and Grace Moore, it’s doubtful any other Irish player would have scored them. Similarly, Wafer’s two tries inspired the comeback which came up just short against France in Belfast last March but which fuels belief ahead of this quarter-final, as well as another brace in the win over Wales.
It’s not just the tries. Wafer can bend games to her sheer will with her carrying beyond contact, turnovers and tackling,
It’s a huge ask, no doubt, for Wafer to magically rediscover her best rugby in a first outing since April, but it’s a gamble worth taking. Better to get 50 or 60 minutes out of her from the start than 20 or 30 at the end, and maybe wonder what might have been.
Aoife Wafer was Six Nations Player of the Championship earlier this year. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
Besides, as former Ireland international Alan Quinlan suggested during the week, the Irish management may well have opted to increase Wafer’s training load last week in preference to giving her a cameo off the bench against New Zealand last Sunday.
As with this World Cup and her career, it’s clear that Wafer’s athleticism, strength and footballing ability has been fuelled by a fierce competitive nature and passion for the game, as well as her rugby roots.
From Ballygarrett in Wexford, Wafer and her younger sister Orla used to watch their two older brothers play rugby in Gorey RFC. One of the boys, Sean, played for a Leinster Under-18s club side. She eventually nagged their mother Samantha into letting her play as well.
Wafer also recalls passing time in the car one day with her brothers by naming as many Irish players as they could. “They were there naming Johnny Sexton, Brian O’Driscoll and all these big names in the men’s team and I named the whole women’s panel. It was a 38-player squad and I named every single one of them. They just sat there and said ‘no, you can’t do it that like’.”
In the days before replica women’s jerseys could be bought, the former Ireland women’s coach Philip ‘Goose’ Doyle sent an autographed Irish jersey to Wafer for her tenth birthday. It has been hanging on her bedroom wall ever since and has since been joined by one of her own.
At 12, she stopped playing with the boys team in Gorey and transferred to the girls’ Under-15 team before moving to Enniscorthy RFC at 18. It was an important staging post where she switched from a bossy little scrumhalf to a backrower, before moving on to Blackrock and Leinster.
On foot of captaining the Ireland Under-18 side, her mother received a call from the IRFU offering Wafer a full-time contract with the Ireland sevens. She relayed that news to her daughter after collecting her from school. It came with a proviso that she first complete her Leaving Cert.
That was fine by her. Wafer always wanted to go into healthcare in either medicine or physiotherapy and duly studied the latter in UCD.
Alas, days after her Ireland XVs debut in the 2022 Six Nations against Italy in Musgrave Park, the then 19-year-old tore her hamstring in sevens training.
Between that and other things, Wafer didn’t win her second cap for another 560 days. That came as a replacement in the WXV 15-13 win against Spain in Dubai in 2023. In the 2024 Six Nations, she was twice player of the round before her 2024-25 breakout campaign.
She is not shy about stating her desire to become the best player in the world and, to that end, is joining Harlequins this season. They’re in for a treat, not least as she can play the uilleann pipes, tin whistle, classical flute and the traditional flute. She brings her flute or tin whistle on rugby trips.
As her Irish debut song, Wafer famously belted out Miley Cyrus’s Party In The USA on the pitch with her teammates. But after a pre-match meal of pancakes and some chill-out music, she’ll listen to a track or two of traditional Irish music.
She’s been missed, but she’s back and will revive her familiar matchday routine ahead of this quarter-final. It’s not stretching things to suggest that, with Wafer in the team, Ireland have a better chance of winning it.