‘You can see how she is transitioning’ - Higgins tips clubmate Flood for big Irish career after successful switch from Sevens

Stacey Flood of Ireland kicks a conversion during the Women's Six Nations Rugby win over Italy at Energia Park in Dublin. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Declan Rooney

April 28 2021 12:34 PM

Irish women’s centre Eve Higgins thinks we are only seeing the start of the talents that her clubmate Stacey Flood can bring to the international scene after the duo’s breakthrough Six Nations campaign.

Higgins started all three of Ireland’s games in the competition alongside the experienced Sene Naoupu in the centre, while Railway Union club mate Flood earned her first starter’s shirt in the key play-off victory against Italy.

A player of the match performance and a controlled display in the ten shirt hints at a bright future for Flood, and according to her Railway Union and Ireland Sevens teammate Higgins, there is still plenty more to come.

“With Sevens she is one of the best in the world and hopefully now with 15s, you can see how she is transitioning, she is just getting better in every single game. I’m just really looking forward to seeing more games and more from her,” said Higgins, who was speaking at the launch of the Canterbury and IRFU eight-week Give it a Try programme, which offers girls between the ages of eight and 14 the chance to sample the game.

“I went to Railway Union when I was 14 and Stacey I think was 17. She had only kind of started playing rugby then, she was only a few months in. We got to play one youth game together before she was over 18.

“When I was brought into the Sevens camp I was training away with her. She is definitely someone I looked up to when I was in Railway at the time. She had just started playing rugby and then she was travelling the world with Sevens. It was something I wanted to do, representing my country.

“Stacey is the type of player that will look the playbook a thousand times over, ask the questions and isn’t shy asking the questions. She is someone who grows in every single match she plays and she improves. Yeah, she is a great player and I’m looking froward to seeing her with even more games under her belt.”

It has been a hectic couple of months for Higgins who played all three of Ireland's Six Nations games, ahead of her final few weeks studying History and Sociology in UCD. Next year she hopes to take up an offer of a Masters in Criminology at the South Dublin college.

On the field, victories against Wales and Italy gave Ireland third place in the competition, and with a likely World Cup play-off against Italy to come later in the year, Higgins realises the importance of that win.

“I think it was tough coming in, I had watched 15s growing up and that was all I watched when I was a kid, but it’s completely different when you’re in that role,” said Higgins, who won 20 Ireland Sevens caps.

“Especially playing at 13 there is a lot defensively that you have to work on. I probably hammered Ciaran our defensive coach a lot with clips throughout training.

“I think there was definitely a lot of positives for us. The World Cup qualifier is next. We have a lot of improvements to do but I think we’ll be happy enough with some of the stuff we have done and the young players coming through, that we are tighter as a group now.”

Higgins got her first taste of rugby with local club Barnhall in Leixlip after her father Bernard brought her down for a try-out. She points to late nights in Co. Meath watching the Ireland women’s team as a real inspiration, and the personal touch of former captain Fiona Coghlan as a continuing influence on her career.

“My Dad would bring me in the middle of the night to Ashbourne to see the women play. Fiona Coghlan was captain at the time and I really looked up to her.

“There was a picture going around (of us both). Luckily my aunt works in the same school as her. One day after school she picked me up and brought me across the road in Lucan to meet her.

“To see them winning the Grand Slam and things like that. I have been fortunate enough to have some conversations with her since and she has send messages. Definitely Fiona Coghlan growing up was a role model to me.”