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'I was really unlucky': Aoife Wafer on her determination to be back fit for World Cup
There’s no doubt about it, Aoife Wafer is Ireland’s best player at the moment, and she is in a race against time to be fit for next month’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
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As if Ireland’s luck couldn’t get much worse with fellow forwards Dorothy Wall and Erin King already missing the tournament through injury.
A week into her comeback from a previous injury which forced her to miss the end of Ireland’s Women’s Six Nations campaign, Aoife Wafer felt it. A familiar pain, and one that brought with it fresh fears.
It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for the 22-year-old, who had just come off the back of a breakthrough start to the year which bagged her Player of the Championship.
If there are nerves, she’s not showing them. Instead, there’s a steely determination to get back to business as quickly as possible.
“I was actually really unlucky,” said Wafer. “I had a tear in my PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in the match versus Wales, so that’s why I couldn’t play in the last match of the Six Nations against Scotland.
“We decided that it would be best for my knee, to not play and not risk it, knowing what was coming up this year [with the World Cup]. I was going really well and getting back from that, felt really good and strong in training; the physio was doing a phenomenal job with my knee, and it felt brand-new.
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“And then, the first full week back at training, no restrictions on speed or contact, I was folding around a ruck, and someone literally came through and landed on the side of me and completely tore my MCL [medial cruciate ligament]. So, literally the first week back at training with no limitations and I was straight back into a brace.”
Having barely made it back from injury, Wafer now faces another extended period on the sidelines while her team-mates continue their own preparations for the tournament in England.
“With this rehab, I’m taking it day by day, so we’ll see,” Wafer says. “With it being my first operation, I just need to listen to the staff and take it easy.
“I’m not usually like this, normally with any kind of rehab, I’m champing at the bit to get back and probably doing things earlier than I should be, but this time, I need to remember that it’s my first World Cup and I’m only 22 so there’s no point rushing this and potentially doing more damage.”
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The IRFU is optimistic that Wafer can still play a significant role in Ireland’s World Cup campaign, which begins on August 24th against Japan in Northampton.
Whether she is running out at Franklin’s Gardens alongside her team-mates or not is unclear, but Wafer is confident that the improvement in form from the national since a dismal Six Nations whitewash in 2023 is proof they can continue the upward trajectory.
“Two years ago, if you look at our results, we finished bottom of the Six Nations with no wins and the Wooden Spoon,” Wafer, who recently signed for PWR side Harlequins, explains.
“I wasn’t involved in the squad then, but it was a really bad campaign; I think we didn’t score many tries at all, and it was a really, really tough time to be involved in Irish women’s rugby.
“But then we went into the summer, ground out a really close game with Spain which at the time was very important for us. We were suddenly scoring tries and it’s like ‘oh my God, we can actually play rugby’. It might sound really silly, but just knowing we could score tries and close out games, gave us a boost heading into the [next] Six Nations.”
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A Championship which saw the women in green finish third, closing out a close game in Belfast against Scotland.
Wafer credits Ireland’s incredible opening WXV1 victory over the Black Ferns in 2024 as the turning point for the squad and has subsequently led to a shift in perception of Scott Bemand’s players from other tier one nations.
“This past Six Nations campaign for us was quite up and down,” Wafer reflects. “There were some games there that we felt we left behind, especially the France game.
“That was the one where we felt was the chance to get them, that was the chance to cause an upset, and we didn’t. It’s completely on us, to be honest, because we should have been better.
“Going to the WXV1 last year, a lot of people talked about us like we had performed well but this tournament was probably a step too far,” Wafer adds. “But we went out against the Black Ferns, and we beat them! And everyone started to take us seriously after that.
“That New Zealand game, I’ve never felt as connected to a team as I was then. We all had this one common goal and we banded together to make it happen.
“We pride ourselves on how we compete for everything, and we do anything for each other, and we all want to bring Ireland back to the 2013 era where we were winning Grand Slams.
“It’s not that long ago that we were successful and we’re hungry to do that. We’re now at that stage where we don’t want to be ‘humble losers’, we want to win games.”
Bemand’s Ireland revels in the competition and the inclusion of several sevens players like Aimee-Leigh Costigan in the wider squad has brought a level of professionalism and big tournament mentality to those younger members ahead of the World Cup next month.
Costigan was central to Ireland’s run at the Paris Olympics last year and has been a key figure in getting her team-mates into the right mindset ahead of the World Cup. Wafer believes the increased competition for starting berths and the addition of seasoned big-game players can only strengthen the squad further.
“Every opportunity is a chance to compete among us, which can lead to a lot of arguments but it’s all good craic in the end!” says Wafer.
“So, our training ID and the integration of the 7s girls, and the world class attitude that they bring into the squad, playing on the global stage and the experience they have of the Olympics and preparing for these massive tournaments has been the key change.
“Aimee-Leigh, for example, was really inspirational because, as a lot of us have never experienced an Olympics or a World Cup, she talked about the mental pressure of these big events and how to deal with it and get yourself in the right mindset, so that’s been really helpful.”
After their opening match against Japan, Ireland will then face off against a familiar foe in Spain before heading down to Brighton in what promises to be an enticing rematch versus the Black Ferns, reinforced with the arrival of sevens star Jorja Miller and the return of Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.
No doubt, Bemand and his squad will need to be at their best to topple New Zealand for a second successive time and, ever the analyst, Wafer is well aware of where improvements can be made.
“I’m very critical of myself and there were a lot of things after games this season where I was like ‘no, I’m not happy with that’,” adds Wafer.
“Even hours after a match, I’ll have watched it back three or four times already before I go to sleep. I’ll even not get to sleep because there’s a moment that will haunt me or something.
“I’m grateful to have won the Six Nations Player of the Championship, but as a squad, we didn’t perform to our maximum and, at the end of the day, there’s no point getting recognised as an individual if the team is not getting the results.
“I’ve always been like this, analysing every part of my own game, always been a perfectionist and want to be the best at whatever I do.”
It’s clear that, without Wafer’s omnipresence in the backrow, Ireland is a different side, but the influence the former Gorey RFC player has already had on the squad so far in her young career cannot be understated.
If the number eight can hit her deadlines, there’s a very real chance of a Wafer v Miller duel in Brighton on September 7th. And surely that’s enough incentive, isn’t it?