Ex-Ireland internationals Briggs and Muldoon land provincial women's rugby lead roles

Irish Rugby have appointed four provincial women’s rugby leadership roles as the union aims to continue the growth of women’s rugby in the country.

Former Ireland fly-half and Ireland Under-21 coach Niamh Briggs is among the appointments and has been named Women’s Pathway Manager with her home province, Munster.

Larissa Muldoon – who won 48 caps for Ireland – has been named Connacht’s women’s rugby lead, Ulster have named Neill Alcorn as their provincial pathway manager and Derek Maybury will be Leinster’s provincial lead.

The quartet are tasked with connecting the provincial pathway with age grade rugby and senior rugby.

In their statement, Irish rugby said: “These full-time roles purposely sit at the intersection of domestic rugby, age-grade development, and performance pathways and enables creation of a sustainable and aligned system nationwide.

“In addition to their provincial remit, the appointments mark a significant evolution of the wider women’s performance ecosystem. Three of the successful candidates [Muldoon, Briggs and Alcorn] transition from roles within the Women’s National Talent Squad [WNTS] and associated pathway programmes, demonstrating both the strength of existing structures and the growing demand for experienced leadership in the women’s game.”

The roles vacated by Muldoon, Briggs and Alcorn will be advertised in the coming weeks.

Irish Rugby hope that the newly created provincial structure can provide a sustainable player pathway for players from their teenage years all the way through to senior rugby.

Three of the four coaches appointed to these provincial women’s provincial rugby leadership roles have experience coaching senior teams. Muldoon was Ireland’s attack and skills coach at last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, briggs coached Ireland U21 to a second-place finish at the Six Nations Women’s U21 Series, while Alcorn has coached the Wolfhounds to three consecutive Celtic Challenge titles.

Maybury rejoins Irish Rugby after seven years as Director of Sport at The King’s Hospital, and previously worked as a coach development manager with both the IRFU and Leinster Rugby.

Lynne Cantwell, Head of Women’s Strategy at Irish Rugby, said: “These appointments represent a hugely important step forward for the women and girl’s game in Ireland. By establishing dedicated leadership roles in each province that are centrally connected through Irish rugby.

“We are building the structures needed to support players at every stage of their journey, within a connected system of people across domestic, pathway and performance rugby.

“Just as importantly, the movement of experienced people into these positions creates new opportunities within our national talent programmes.

“That ripple effect strengthens the entire system—from emerging players to the coaches and performance support staff who support them—and ensures we continue to build depth and sustainability across women’s rugby.

“It has been a difficult week for women’s rugby in Ireland following the loss of Philip ‘Goose’ Doyle who was so influential in women’s rugby. Knowing him as we did, we know he would be happy to see the signs of growth in the game through the roles being announced, reflecting progress being made and building on the legacy he leaves.”