From the GAA, horseracing and basketball to rugby: The sports-mad family behind Dorothy Wall

Her speed, strength, skill and fearlessness were clearly on display, a rare combination.

“My Mum (Sophia) would have been very strong. She rode horses and you generally aren’t too fragile if you’re riding horses because you can get thrown off at any stage,” she says as she ponders her own make-up.

“I’ve been in the Sevens (programme) for the last three years and being in the gym four times a week allows you to put up numbers in terms of your squat and your bench and your hip thrust. You’re doing it consistently the whole time.

“I suppose that’s the game I’d play. I wouldn’t shy away from contact or anything like that. It will be more of a physical challenge this weekend than it was last weekend because the French are more of a different breed.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Wall comes from a sports-mad family. Her three younger brothers play rugby and both of her parents excelled at their own sports of choice.

In previous interviews, her grandmother Betsy O’Connor – a talented sportswoman and Harvard graduate from New York who moved to rural Ireland after meeting Wall’s farming grandfather – has been the focus.

However, on reflection, Wall feels she hasn’t given her dad enough credit.

“Everyone likes the gran angle but I’ve never actually mentioned my dad who was an incredible athlete – he just doesn’t talk about it much,” she says.

“He played for Tipperary in football and hurling and played rugby for Clonmel and Fethard, he was asked to go to bigger clubs and was meant to go to America on a football scholarship but he had to stay at home and keep his family going.

“He sacrificed those opportunities to keep his family going, a big thing for him is that I take every opportunity I get because he had to miss some in order to get on with life.

“Dad never talks about himself. Gran kind of takes all the limelight then, but my dad has a massive impact on me in terms of sport.

“Whenever I go to Clonmel, our local town, with him there’s lads shouting across the street calling him ‘Baby Jesus’, his nickname from his playing days, and I’m like ‘I actually can’t go anywhere with you!’”

Anthony Wall was corner-forward on a Tipperary U-21 hurling team that featured Liam Sheedy, Conal Bonnar and John Leahy that suffered a 2-11 to 1-11 All-Ireland final defeat to a Cats side that contained Charlie Carter, Jamesie Brennan, Adrian Ronan and DJ Carey.

He played senior inter-county football for the Premier county and junior in both codes and he’s been a strong sounding board for his similarly high achieving daughter.

“He’s very humble, he wouldn’t speak about it at all. Mum is probably a bit more intense in terms of the competitive side of things, she’s not a pushy parent but she’d want us to do our best in everything,” Wall says.

“Dad played so much sport, he just wants us to enjoy it. I’d always ring him before or after a match, he’s the cool head you’d want to talk to. He’s not going to hype you up on doing too well or come down on you for doing too badly, he just asked if I enjoyed it. It’s good.

“There’s a load of medals and stuff at home and I don’t even know the half of it. I must ask him more about it. He came to rugby later in life, he was good.

“My mum and dad actually met at a rugby match, so there’s that bit of history there.

“He was in an All-Ireland final, it’s still a sore spot for him I think. He’s got an old Kilkenny jersey upstairs. I’m terrible, I should have mentioned him before, but gran got all the limelight.

“My gran is an extremely practical lady, she’s very intelligent and very opinionated and she’ll give you a very fair analysis of anything you do and won’t spare the detail of what she really thinks.

“So, I get the raw competitiveness from mum and maybe my cooler head from dad. I’m not sure.”

When Anthony first took his six-year-old daughter down to the rugby club, she ran a mile.

A decade later and already an international basketball player, she gave it another try when Fethard and District RFC’s tireless women’s rugby advocate Polly Murphy got in touch.

This time the bug bit. Within months she was playing for Munster alongside Enya Breen and Emily Lane. Now, they’re all part of the senior international set-up.

“I was training four times a week and in terms of skills you’re getting what no other player in the country gets because that isn’t available,” she says of the Sevens exposure.

“There’s no Academy set-up, we don’t get that training the whole time so Sevens was four days a week of two-v-ones, fixing players, switches, moves . . . learning how to have those basic skills. That was huge, for all of us, and that’s clear to see with the players who have come in that their level of skill is very good.

“I was brought into XVs, I could remember that physical side of my game that I would have had underage and I really enjoyed that aspect as well. I’m happy enough to switch between the two.”

For now, her focus is fully on France but outside the camp the meeting of a largely amateur side and the French semi-professionals throws up questions about the direction the sport is moving.

Like winger Béibhinn Parsons, Wall is at the start of a hugely promising career in a sport that seems to be on the cusp of huge change on an international level.

Wall believes that all they can do to get on board is perform.

“It’s 15 girls versus 15 girls, at the end of the day that’s kind of politics and a bigger issue that needs to be dealt with,” she says. “As a player, trophies and wins are our currency. If we want to be world class, we have to beat these teams and be on par with them.

“They’re semi-professional, but there’s a good vibe on our team at the minute. We’re all very excited for what’s coming. From what the girls said, I wasn’t involved in the team three or four years ago, but they hit a low then. Once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. We’re on an upward trajectory so I’m excited for what’s to come.”

With Wall setting the tone from the back-row, they’ll keep moving in the right direction.

Online Editors