Aoife Wafer: 'I don't think I'm anywhere near a finished product'

Harlequins and Ireland back-row Aoife Wafer still thinks she has room for to improve.

Which, when you consider the performances of the 23-year-old at the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, is a truly horrifying prospect.

At this year’s tournament, Wafer started all five matches at No.8 and received a second nomination for Player of the Championship on the bounce. Last year she won.

This year Wafer had the second-most carries [78] and offloads [nine] in the competition, as well as the fourth-most metres made.

Although she was the top-ranked forward in those metrics. As Ireland finished third in the competition, she made the joint-most dominant tackles [eight] and post contact metres [129].

Just several days after the nomination was announced, her Premiership Women’s Rugby club side, Harlequins, confirmed that Wafer had re-signed with the club ahead of next season.

“I don’t think I’m anywhere near a finished product to be honest with you,” Wafer said. “I’m still only 23 and I think I definitely still have a lot more to learn and I have a lot more to give to whatever team I’m involved with as well.

“I’m excited to kind of see what, what else I can unlock in the next few months or years or weeks. I chase kind of one percenters. I think that kind of showed in the tournament when I got going.

“The Quins style and the Irish style are very different styles, but I try to bring a bit of that Quins flair into the Irish game when I got going. It only benefitted me when I was on the pitch”

Wafer admitted that it was not a wholly straightforward decision to stay put with Harlequins. The 23-year-old spoke to her family and the IRFU to decide whether West London and PWR was the best place for her to play domestic rugby.

You can certainly say that England’s top flight has been good to the back-row. Her seven tries in 10 league appearances are hugely impressive, as are her 167 carries.  347 post contact metres and 154 completed tackles.

Her re-signing is also the latest piece of work done by Harlequins. In recent months the club have retained the services of several core players and have also confirmed the capture of Wales international Sisilia Tuipulotu from Gloucester Hartpury.

With Harlequins currently unlikely to reach the semi-finals with only one game to play this season against Leicester Tigers on Saturday, while other contenders have two, the team’s head coach, Ross Chisholm, is excited about what the future could have in store.

“We’re really excited to re-sign Aoife and have Sisilia joining us,” Chisholm said. “It adds to a really strong squad and you’re always trying to get the best players you can in the door.

“The competitiveness of the league, each side is really strong and, ultimately, you want to try and get the strongest squad you can – but from our point of view, it’s aligning to how we want to play and aligning to the recruitment strategy.

“It’s not just about going out and going, ‘oh, they’re really good, let’s just get them’. Do they fit how we want to play? Do they fit the game style? The game model? Culturally? All that sort of stuff.

“There’s a clear strategy around how we want to recruit and the players we want to try and recruit. I strongly believe that Sisilia and Aoife really fit the style and the brand that we want to play.”