EUC2007, Ireland v Belgium - First victory for Ireland's Woman

2007 was a landmark year for Irish Women's Ultimate, for the first time we had trials and a selected squad. We trained intensively and followed a fitness programme from February to August putting in the hard yards and going out with the belief that we could get results! Liz Schaffalitzky (Captain) and I (Vice-Captain) designed the training programme for the season focusing on playing the basics well, working on our long game and playing to our strengths - a fast running game! 

Having attended the previous World and European Championships there was a hugely different attitude and mentality about this Irish Women's Team and the buzz was mighty! We played a very strong Germany in our opening game who beat us 17-5. Next up we played the Belgians.

Having never played the Belgians before we didn't know what to expect, they had not entered a tournament as a national team since 1995. For me this game is a bit of a blur......Video of the game!.....the win seemed like it was always going to happen as soon as we stepped onto the pitch....we didn't win it in a glamorous way but it was certainly a team performance with our D game really lighting up. We finished the game as victors 17-9. There were no wild celebrations and we quietly carried on; this victory was a long time coming for the Irish Ladies and this was only the beginning of that sweet taste - we went on to beat Latvia, France, Austria and Russia convincingly. However we took our eyes off the prize in our last game for 9th place and lost 16-10 to France. Team list and results. Our performance at these Championships were unprecedented and the loss on the final day drove us on to compete at a high level again the next year beating France 16-14 for 13th place at WUGC08.

I really see EUC11 being a MASSIVE tournament for the Irish Women's Team and I can't wait to try out to get a chance to pull on the green jersey again! May be this Team video! will get you inspired.

Women's Team Spirit Win World's 2004

2003 saw the first Irish Women's Team ever compete in EUC03 in France. We entered as a tyro team and finished 9th out of 9, Sparky and I as designated captains (from a bit of coaxing from Dominick and Brian) had begged, stolen and borrowed to get women on board......what we did manage was to gain a reputation of being a highly spirited team....this was somewhat accidental as our knowledge of the rules weren't the sharpest but perhaps we were known best for our off field antics....none the less we did well and represented Ireland to the best of our ability at that stage. Team list and results.

The experience of 2003 had certainly put fire in our bellies to improve and in 2004 we went to Finland as a non-tyro team. Team list and results. We were improving and managed to have a no bagel tournament. 

Irish Women's Team 2004:

A lot of hard work from Brian helped us gain knowledge and experience throughout the week (thank you Brian) and we really started to show our true colours on the field battling with determination and fairness! Especially in our tight games against the Russians. When we rocked up to watch the finals (well and truly hungover) we were absolutely over the moon to be announced as Spirit Winners!!!!! I think we owe a lot to the Irish Open Team (Open Division Spirit Winners) at the time who encouraged us the whole way through the tournament, it may have been easy to let our heads drop but the lads tirelessly cheered us on with countless renditions of 'You're just too good to be true'. World's 2004 blooded some of our strongest international tournaments to date and it really is a pleasure for me to say that I was part of the team who really started to make things happen for Irish Women's Ultimate. I just hope I've got more miles on the clock to experience another Spirit Win! To win alongside the Open Team was a great testament to the good reputation that Irish Ultimate holds, I just hope that we can all uphold this as we grow....the future is in our hands! I really think it is important to highlight for future National Teams that whilst you need to focus on your team's performance and your individual performance to have your fellow country men and women there supporting you in the green white and gold is something very special indeed!

World Women's Spirit Champions 2004 with the trophy:

Fiona Mc Donald