Former Ireland lock Maz Reilly will be forever grateful for the simple advice a friend gave her when she was first asked to play rugby, although her own approach to coaching is rather more sophisticated.
“A friend at college asked me to play rugby. I said: ‘no’ as I was a bit of a chicken, but she told me to just stand back and kick it,” Reilly told World Rugby. “I took her advice and I have been involved ever since.”
From that tentative start, Reilly went on to win 54 caps for Ireland and to play in three Women’s Rugby World Cups before she retired from playing in 2017.
But Reilly remains passionate about rugby and is now busy encouraging others to be active in her day job as a Sports Development Officer for Dublin City Council and to play rugby, in particular, in her coaching roles with Leinster Women, Barnhall RFC and Wesley College’s junior and senior girls teams.
During her playing career, Reilly enjoyed the opportunity to travel the world, to experience different cultures – rugby and lifestyle – and to make friendships that will last a lifetime.
As a participant of the Gallagher High Performance Academy WXV 2024, Reilly hopes that her personal development will benefit from working with other talented coaches from across the rugby-playing world.
“I hope to learn and develop, both in terms of rugby specifics and also knowledge about myself so that I can become a more well-rounded coach and, therefore, add value to teams I’m involved with and as a result, add my name to the depth of quality coaches around the world,” she said.
“I also aim to maximise this opportunity so that I can inspire current and future coaches to be the very best coaches they can be – for their players, clubs, communities and themselves. If they can see it, they can believe it.”
A key objective of the Gallagher High Performance Academy is to help increase the number of female coaches and other high performance roles at the elite levels of rugby, and Reilly appreciates the importance of having role models to inspire others.
“I’ve seen at first-hand the impact that role models and increased visibility can have, not only on other players, but on clubs, communities and wider society,” she said.
“This leads to a change in conversations, attitudes and the understanding that women have a place in sport and in our communities.”