Halpin’s transition hadn’t yet begun, he hadn’t began the process of gender-affirming surgery, or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but he also couldn’t play.

“I got in touch with the IRFU in 2016 and said: ‘look, I’m a trans man, I’ve been playing women’s rugby for X number of years. Can I continue to play with my team?’”

Inadvertently, Halpin had fallen into a lacuna of players that wanted to play but weren’t allowed.

“I was told that if my gender legally changed [as it could with the Gender Recognition Act 2015] I could no longer play with the women’s team, even though I’d had no medical intervention. My body was still completely the same as it was before I legally changed my gender, it was the same as the girls that I was playing with, I had no ‘advantage’ over them.”

That left Halpin in the position “where I was a transperson who needed to come out and live my life as the man that I was, but if I did that, I wasn’t going to be able to play the sport that kept me going through many tough times.”

Halpin was stuck between a rule – no trans men in women’s rugby – and a dangerous place, playing on a men’s team with a biological female body. “That’s where a safety issue comes in, and a liability issue comes in also.

“I’m not saying ‘put a trans woman on a pitch who has not started hormone replacement therapy’. I’m not saying ‘put her on a pitch with cis women’, that’s not what I’m saying because of course we have to be mindful, especially in a contact sport, of safety.

“Safety is number one all of the time, and I will always say that, so I’m not advocating for someone who has recently come out and has not started treatment to automatically walk onto a woman’s team.

“That’s not what I’m saying. I am saying apply the international best practice standards of care.”

Stephen McNamara, the director of communications at the IRFU, said: “The IRFU wishes to ensure that as many people as is safe and practicable get an opportunity to play the game.

“We seek to provide an environment that accommodates requests to play the game irrespective of gender identity.

“Accordingly, there are a range of considerations that should be taken into account when transgendered people are playing the game.

“The inclusion of transgender players requires guidance to ensure that, whatever a person’s declared gender, this is balanced with the safety of all players.”

Olympic rules – and now the French Rugby Federation – allow trans women to compete in sports subject to a number of hormonal restrictions and time passing, after a Dutch report in the European journal of Endocrinology found that within a year after gender-affirmation surgery, haemoglobin levels and testosterone were equal with their cis women counterparts.

World Rugby, though, decided not to adopt that – the first international sports body to block transgender women from competition, despite its ‘Rugby for all’ brand.

“I am saying that best practice needs to be abided by and that once trans women do reach the standards, that she is allowed to play for that women’s team,” explains Halpin.

In 2018, the IRFU – following a two-year email conversation with Halpin – adapted their policy somewhat: “Trans men [could] play men’s rugby regardless of whether you’ve started hormone treatment or not – and that’s still an extreme safety issue – but what they did change is they took away the requirements for surgeries, which is good. However, they’re still restricting trans women playing female rugby, regardless of hormones and things like that.

“They have very strict rules about hormone testing, so trans women are exclusively being discriminated against in rugby when all scientific evidence is not being followed.”

The IRFU sets out their conditions to play online.

“There may be exceptional circumstances that do not fall within the above parameters,” acknowledges McNamara.

“An IRFU panel made up of rugby, medical and legal professionals will review such cases on an individual basis and will present their recommendations to the Rugby/Management Committees as necessary.”

For Halpin himself, the IRFU’s decision in 2018 came too late. Having started hormones a month before the decision, he could no longer play.

“Such a huge part of my life was taken away from me because people just didn’t want to know, people didn’t want to learn and didn’t want to put the resources into finding out the correct information.

“There was a review of this last year, where presented evidence from the IGR, the international gay rugby association – who compiles all of the scientific evidence from doctors, endocronologists, legal bodies, you name it – it was all presented. It was all rejected, the Olympic Council’s guidelines were presented, all rejected, so they’re not going by scientific facts when it comes to trans women.”

At the time of the World Rugby examination of trans players in the game, the IRFU were lobbied by multiple organisations and individuals on World Rugby’s review.

“In all cases, we [the IRFU] referred them to World Rugby. Our polices differ from those of World Rugby and it was therefore a matter for World Rugby.”

This points back to a larger problem, argues Halpin.

“Why is World Rugby one of the only sports in the world that are not following policies, that are not following international sporting policy, when it comes to transgender players? I often wonder if that is ignorance? Is it a kind of internal systemic transphobia?

“It might not be anyone in particular but just a systemic issue, or do they even want to know? There’s a number of challenges that we continue to face when it comes to sport, and trans people are entitled to take part in sports.

“I love the game. It’s been my passion since I was five years old, for the past 25 years, I lived in the rugby club. I love the game.”

The IRFU, in their response, stated that any issues are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, that the guidelines are a living document, subject to change as new information is learned.

“The IRFU policy has developed as knowledge and information has become available to all sports and as we have gone through the process with applicants – we, like many, are continually learning and open to change.

“Our policies have always sought to allow people to play our game and we take a case-by-case approach to afford each individual, who will have unique circumstances, due care and attention.

“While it can take time to evaluate each case before we can grant a person permission to play, we have never prevented any transperson from playing our game, and hope that can continue to be the case.

“The overriding objective is, and remains, the guarantee of fair competition. Restrictions on participation are appropriate to the extent that they are necessary, and proportionate to the achievement of that objective.”

For Halpin though, rugby’s presence in his life is muted now.

“And now I miss it more than anything. I miss playing, I miss my routine. I miss the people when you drop out of the sport.

“You lose hundreds of friends, not dropped out, when you’re forced out. You lose people that you’ve had wonderful connections with, relationships with for a long time and you miss it, the sporting aspect, the social aspect. And then you feel as well: ‘why am I specifically being treated like this when no other player on my team is?’

“You feel a bit left behind by the organisation, you feel left behind by the sports and it kind of taints the game for you that you’ve loved so much for such a long time.”