Pitching in for fitness

Gemma your's is a bit of a strange story in that you weren't born a rugby player and you weren't really into it, but you fell into it after becoming a single mum and fell into the doldrums, but I know the CoD Ladies Club is in its fifth year now, isn't it?

That's right. I went o Limavady Grammar School and there was a lot of rugby for the boys, and we would have gone out and supported it, but I never really understood it.

Right.

Ehm...then coming into rugby it was more a social thing than anything else.

I know the ladies team has been promoted to the top league. Can you explain what's involved for the ladies...is it the same as the men's?

Slightly different rules. A lot of people when they think of rugby they think of it as very rough.

Aye, like it's a blood sport!

You would think of that, but it is girls playing girls, essentially, so it is more about speed and fitness rather than power and brute strength.

So you are not allowed to scratch each other with your nails and there is no hair-pulling?

Definitely not! Hair has to be without hair clips, although quite a few of us wear fake tan!

Right...you don't all run around clutching a certain brand of crisps, do you?

No (Laughs) Actually we have got a lot of girls who would play Gaelic, so we do. We have a lot of girls in from Gaelic. It is more about the social aspect and that sort of thing and obviously when we are successful it pushes us more to be successful and push ourselves forward.

What is the catchment for the ladies rugby. I know you are from Magheramason/Bready area, aren't you?

I am, but we have girls who come from as far away as Enniskillen and we have a girl who is originally from Madrid. She now lives in Belfast, and there are other teams around Belfast, but because of the whole social aspect of the club, she likes us the best and she does travel the whole way down from Belfast to play.

And train as well?

Umhum...and we also have a girl who was expecting and did not realise and she was training right up until she was five months!

Good gracious! I'm not even going to go there!! I know that the ladies have now been promoted to the top league and you are all in celebratory mood, but I understand that the club is also now launching an Under-19 for ladies, is that right?

That's right. We have...quite a lot of our members are on the Ulster Rugby Team, including our Captain, Diane Nixon, who is also the Captain of the Ulster squad, and who has caps for Oxford as well, so following the success of the ladies' team, the adult team, we will now be focusing on the Under-19s. There is quite a lot of schools' football or soccer, but not necessarily for girls' rugby. The opportunities, especially for younger girls who are going to university there is always sport scholarships and rugby is one of the ones that wouldn't be as well-known - but would be if you had interest in the sport. If you have rugby behind you then you would be more likely to get a sports scholarship.

You are keen to highlight your Blitz on July 15 as well, I believe?

Umhum...essentially it is nothing too intense. It is not 'super fitness'. It will take the form of rugby games introducing women to the sport, to the basic rules and social aspect of the club and it is a good way for those who have not been into sport for a while or have not been doing anything to come out and try it out without feeling too pressurised.

When's it on and where?

It is on July 15 at 7.30pm at the Rugby Club on Judge's Road.

Who all can go?

Anybody really. People like me who were sitting about the house and were getting more and more depressed about weight, or people who last lost touch with friends or things...

Were you sporty in school?

I was slightly. I played netball, but I never went to hockey because I always stood on the ball and stuff. I could never...I always stood on the ball! Then after I left school - I'm out of school five nearly six years - and I missed it, so rugby started off as a fitness thing for me.

Was that because you became a mum?

No...I went to university and studied drama and the whole social side of being a student overtook and I wasn't really interested in doing it for fitness. But after I had Rebecca I started to get depressed and I didn't want to go on medication, I was finding the exercised helped.

Was it post-natal depression?

Yeah, definitely.

How was it effecting you?

I am normally a confident person, but it was just I was paranoid about I was never good enough to look after her or not doing my best. I always felt I could be doing better and a lot my friends were either in relationships or getting married and having kids, or they didn't have kids at all and they were still single and going out. I felt stuck in the middle and it was hard for me. I shut myself off completely, I had good friends but I lost them.

So what eventually made you go out and try rugby?

A friend of mine. She had been playing right from the start and she suggested to me 'Why don't you come out and train with us?' I hadn't a clue about rugby at all. I had no idea about the rules, but I said I would go out and give it a go . I had been on about joining a gym to lose a bit of weight and I didn't even think about it and I went to the training sessions and the girls who were there already who had been part of the team for two or three years made me feel very very welcome. I started off with the intention of just going out to train and fourth week I got to play 10 minutes of a match, and I was delighted.

Really. Was it the adrenaline rush?

It was the fact that it was a team of 15 - at least 15 - and when you are at the gym and training on your own it is hard because you are not seeing results for yourself, but when you are playing in a team you don't want to let the other girls down and you know they are there to support you. It was like therapy for me.