GREAT GETAWAYS WOMEN’S RUGBY SISTER SCRUM

SISTER SCRUM

THEY ARE SIDE BY SIDE AS THEY STRETCH: THE SISTERS EXCHANGE A FEW WORDS, THEN BURST OUT LAUGHING. They wear the same green jersey and have the same blue eyes; one is brunette, the other is blonde. Kim and Stacey Flood are sis“There’s no rivalry between us – just the thrill of competition,” declares Kim. ters and both play on the national women’s rugby team. The former plays both Sevens and 15s; the latter football, one of Ireland’s most popular sports (see inset). Kim focuses on Sevens. Both sports are played on the same pitch- first signed up to play football at age 7, then began playing the es with similar rules, the main distinction being the number of Gaelic version at age 11, intensely practicing both sports in her athletes on the playing field: fifteen a-side for traditional rugby, teens. Stacey started with football when she was 8, taking up and, logically, only seven for Sevens, which requires strenu- rugby a bit later. She is modest by nature and does not mention ous physical effort and great technical versatility. The shorter that she is the youngest semi-professional female rugby player Sevens rugby games are often spectacular and are drawing in Ireland. “No female rugby player has ever won as many cups growing numbers of fans. When we met in the spring of 2016, as she has at her age,” her big sister takes care to point out. Kim and Stacey were training for the Rio Olympics, where Stacey can proudly boast of eight: “I won my first when I was they hoped to represent their country. “This is the first time 18 at the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Grand Prix Series sisters have played together on an advanced-level rugby team in Kazan, Russia.” When asked why they chose rugby, Kim in Ireland,” says Kim, the 26-year-old brunette. She works for and Stacey respond in unison: “We wanted to travel!” Stacey a Bank of Ireland insurance company and negotiates with her clarifies further: “With Gaelic sports, we’re confined to Ireland. boss to have time to train at least four afternoons a week. With rugby, we can get out and see the world.” They’ve been Stacey, the 19-year-old blonde, is studying computer science to Russia, the United States, several European countries and in a commercial context. She, too, makes arrangements with even Australia. “Pro sport is a very strict world,” acknowledges her school to juggle her classes and high-level sport commit- Stacey. “We have to keep in shape with gym time and running ments. Generally speaking, both employers and professors are every day. We also stay on a stringent diet. Our coach wants us easy-going about scheduling, as they know that these Olympic to get eight hours’ sleep a night and we have to be careful not hopefuls represent Ireland in important rugby matches. And, to injure ourselves. Some of our friends don’t understand this in this country, rugby is more than a sport – it’s an emblematic degree of discipline. But, in exchange for all this commitment, national pastime. we get to travel all over.” And though their determination was not enough to send them to Brazil for the Olympics, they will SEEING THE WORLD still play on the worldwide circuit with the team.

The two sisters still live with their parents in a quiet section of Dublin known as Sandymount. It’s a close family in which BLUSH AND BRUISES everyone loves sports: Mr and Mrs Flood, a movie props man On the pitch at Donnybrook Stadium, home to today’s pracand a “lollipop lady” (helping children to cross the road before tice, some twenty women rugby players clash alongside Kim and after school), respectively, have long enjoyed rowing and and Stacey. The faces are carefully made up, their nails beaustill take part in fast and furious ping-pong matches with their tifully polished. But their white skin is marred by nasty scrapes six children. The four daughters of this brood all played Gaelic on their elbows and knees. At the coach’s whistle, they stop their informal chatting to focus on passing accuracy, speed, endurance or power, as well as to practice some spectacular tackles. Kim and Stacey compete fiercely for the ball – tough, GAELIC GAMES ALONGSIDE RUGBY AND FOOTBALL, TRADITIONAL IRISH SPORTS ARE STILL WIDELY PRACTICED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. but taking care with one another. “There’s no rivalry between us,” declares Kim at the end of practice, “just the thrill of competition. Especially since we don’t play the same position – I play hooker and Stacey’s a scrumhalf.” Tonight, both athletes will go home to eat dinner in the same kitchen, as these rugby GAELIC FOOTBALL GAELIC HANDBALL doyennes are still devoted to their family. In fact, they can’t On pitches like those used Akin to squash and Basque really afford to live anywhere else: “We don’t have the revenue for rugby, two teams of pelota: two players hit the that the men’s team has,” grumbles Stacey with a touch of fifteen must score tries or ball against a wall with their bitterness that she quickly brushes off with a shake of her hair. goals. Both hands and feet gloved hands. Adding, nevertheless, that “at our level, if we were boys, we’d can be used. have enough money to each buy our own house.” n

ROUNDERS

HURLING Hurling, a blend of hockey and rugby, is a fast-paced (the ball reaching 110 km/h) and dangerous (that hurley can hurt) sport. Camogie is the women’s variant. This ancestor of baseball is a bat-and-ball game, the object of which is to score a point by hitting the ball, then ultimately going around the four bases without being put “out”.