Kelly hoping for more luck in Tullow's second season in AIL

Grace Kelly has said that Tullow will be looking to make Rathoe Road a fortress as the Carlow club prepare themselves for a second season in the Women’s All-Ireland League.

Newcomers to the competition in 2024/25, Tullow will kick-start the present term with a home encounter against the latest AIL debutants at 12.30pm this Saturday. One of three Munster outfits in the division, Ennis have joined the league for 2025/26 and will be hell-bent on making a strong impression at the highest level of women’s domestic rugby.

Yet Tullow are seeking to make life as difficult as possible for their Clare counterparts this weekend and experienced hooker Kelly hopes that success on home soil can become a welcome habit in the current campaign.

"One of our aims would be to try and target the home games. I know we said that last year, but we were unfortunate within our first two games we had a serious number of injuries. This year, we’ve Ennis at home in the first game. Hopefully we’ll have a big crowd out. It’s a massive starter for us and hopefully get a win,” Kelly remarked at an All-Ireland league launch in Dublin’s Energia Park last Wednesday.

“I think the jump from Division One to AIL is massive. There is a massive gap there, so it will be interesting to see [how Ennis performs]. We were in their shoes last year, the new club on the scene. It will be interesting, especially as we finished bottom last year and they’re only coming up. It will be a good match hopefully.” 

As Kelly references, it was a tough introduction to life in the Women’s All-Ireland League last season for Tullow with 18 straight losses leaving them rooted to the foot of the table. Yet as Kelly also mentioned above, missing a number of players through injury didn’t help their cause in the early weeks of the term.

However, with a number of players added to the squad for the new season, Kelly is optimistic that Tullow can make strides in the latest edition of the Women’s AIL. Additionally, having only previously known the majority of teams in the competition by reputation, the club stalwart feels her side will reap the benefits of having an All-Ireland League campaign under their belts.

“We had some seriously tough matches last year, but I think going into this season we know now what is expected from last year. I think it’s going to be important to hit the ground running at the start. We had a great set-up last year. We had a great crew of girls there and we had great coaching.

“I just think this year we’re a bit more settled in regards to numbers. I think we didn’t really anticipate the big jump from Division One to AIL. I think in the recruitment wise, we probably didn’t do enough last year.

“We were lucky enough to get the opportunity again to stay this year and we put a massive emphasis on recruitment. We did and now hopefully we have great numbers. Not injuries like last year.” 

While Kelly and her team-mates will be doing their utmost to put Tullow on the map from a women’s rugby perspective in the coming weeks and months, a former club member has also been doing that on the international stage in recent times.

Although now with Old Belvedere in Dublin, O’Brien is a native of Tullow and lined out for the club as both an underage and adult player in the past. A senior debutant for Ireland back in 2022, the Carlow woman – who turned 22 on Monday – has already accumulated 30 caps in the green jersey at senior level.

She had amassed 117 points in advance of Ireland’s recent campaign in the Women’s Rugby World Cup over in England and went on to add 25 points to her tally during the tournament – including a maiden international try in a pool stage win against Spain in Northampton.

O’Brien also played the full 80 minutes in an agonising quarter-final defeat to France at Sandy Park in Exeter last Sunday week and is expected to be a mainstay in the Irish team for some time to come.

“I think they were unfortunate [against France]. They kind of just let it slip away into the second half, but they’ve done so well even to get there. They should be really proud of themselves.

“Dannah played all her underage rugby in Tullow. I was lucky to play one year senior with Dannah before she went up to Dublin. Dannah came from Tullow and that is where she was produced, as they would say. She’s brilliant and she’s doing really, really well.” 

While there was a strong Irish support over in England, Kelly wasn’t able to make it over to cheer on her former team-mate due to a busy work schedule. Previously in the agricultural sector, Kelly is now employed as a prison officer in Cloverhill on Dublin’s south side.

Despite being kept on her toes since beginning in the role a little over 18 months ago, Kelly explained that a slight change in her position has made it possible for her to achieve a suitable balance between work and sport.

As well as Tullow in rugby, Kelly also regularly lines out for Rathvilly in Gaelic football and scored 1-3 when they won the 2024 Carlow Intermediate Football Championship title with a final victory over Kildavin/Clonegal in September of last year.

“I’m actually on the transport end of it now. I was on shift work, but I changed then so I could play rugby and play sport. It’d be 8 to 5 and you do a few overtime hours then. Fit them in when you can. It’s very good that way,” Kelly added.

“I always kind of wanted to be in something that was going to give me a pension. It was either the guards or the prison, so I decided on the Irish prison service. That’s what I wanted to do.”