Laois sporting legend Alison Miller
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
We are chatting to you still from Ballykilkavan, a farm and brewery here in County Leash as part of the Newstalk Summer Tour. I'm delighted now to be joined by a Leash sporting legend and indeed rugby royalty, former Irish international Alison Miller. Alison, you're very welcome. How are you, Clare? Thank you for being with us here today. We'll give her a round of applause. Let's welcome Alison to the party. What part of Leash are you from?
What inspired Alison Miller to start playing rugby?
I'm from Balloch and Wyler, so I went to school in Killeen. I'm now living in Coletian, so I didn't venture too far.
You did not, but you were kind of not late to rugby, but it was, you did other sports first, didn't you?
Oh yeah, we'd be a well-known GA family. My dad and all, well, I'm not sure, nearly all my uncles played football for Leash. So, and my mom was a PE teacher. Yes, we played, oh, everything in our house. There wasn't probably a sport we didn't play. So yeah, I played, did athletics in St. Adams.
How did Alison's early sports background influence her rugby career?
That would have been my main sport. went to St Leo's in Carlow, which is a very sporty school, did volleyball, hockey, gymnastics, ballet, athletics, Gaelic football. So rugby is probably what I settled on.
So was it love at first sight with the rugby? How did it happen for you?
Yeah, it was actually, it's funny how things happen. It was actually, my dad actually died the summer of 2006, sadly, actually. 20 years ago now. Yeah, 20 years at the weekend. Actually, the weekend before last, we had his 20-year anniversary there.
What challenges did Alison face when starting rugby as a new sport?
So during that summer and everything, it was a big shock. He was actually managing our local football team in Amore Park. So just then, when I went back to college, it was my last year of college, and I was probably looking for a distraction or... I definitely didn't want to do any study, but I had to, but I was just looking for something. And two of my friends, Andy and Shane, had always said, I think you'd be really good at rugby. And I took it up that year in college. I hadn't really a clue what I was doing.
Yeah, but it comes from a sort of a, when you go through something like that, you're unsettled. You don't know what you want or what you should be at. So in a way, it was the perfect time for something new to come along.
Yeah, and I kind of, I suppose it was the attitude. You don't know what's around the corner. Life is short. You should try new things. you should give it a go because maybe it had been in the back of my mind because people had said it to me I had vaguely signed a petition in St Leo's when I was 14 to form a rugby team in Carlow that was the back of my mind I was strong and fast I suppose I had the balls skills from other sports and I just gave it a go and yeah it was It is a hard sport to take up when you've never played because it doesn't really make sense.
But women's rugby wasn't then what it is now, was it?
No, definitely not. I would have been aware of the team, all right, and I did know my friend Lindsay McHenry. Shout out to Lindsay.
What memorable achievements did Alison have while playing for Ireland?
She was the first girl I know to play rugby. I went to school with her in St Leo's, so she was playing for Kilkenny at the time. And the Carlow women had a team at the time. was aware of it and in my head I never distinguished it as like it was like playing football it was like doing ballet it was like doing gymnastics I didn't ever put oh it's traditionally a male sport or it's that physical it was just another sport that I could play.
So how quickly then did it start to develop for you once you got into it?
Played that year in college. I was playing football for Leash at the same time that I took it up, which they weren't that happy with. I'm sure they weren't. I was only playing football. I just got onto the Leash team. And then I played another year with Leash and then I joined my local, wouldn't be my local team, but it was the nearest Port Leash. I joined Port Leash RFC in... i can't remember but it was about two years after i took it up in college and we weren't the highest division we were actually the lowest division you could play in the country so i remember playing the first match scored about seven tries and yvonne delaney said turned around to me one of the players that you found your sport you're not going anywhere else this is your sport so played one year in um port leash i went for leinster trials that didn't work out unfortunately didn't get picked for leinster
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:35
2
What inspired Alison Miller to start playing rugby?
0:35–1:00
3
How did Alison's early sports background influence her rugby career?
1:00–1:32
4
What challenges did Alison face when starting rugby as a new sport?
1:32–2:47
5
What memorable achievements did Alison have while playing for Ireland?
2:47–4:12
6
How did Alison cope with the pressures of playing at the international level?
4:12–5:52
7
What significant injury impacted Alison's rugby career?
5:52–7:08
8
How has women's rugby evolved since Alison's playing days?
7:08–11:03
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Claire Byrne Show
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