Finn is mature beyond her Rugby years

By Thomas Conway

To the outside world, Caitríona Finn’s meteoric rise in Irish women’s rugby over the past year or so might feel like it has happened very quickly.

The 19 year-old out-half has gone from being a marquee player within the underage system to an emerging star at senior level, racking up a series of awards and accolades along the way.

By most standards that is a quick transition, but it didn’t feel that way to the Garrykennedy native. Quite the contrary. She had been “waiting” to make her mark for some time, and when the moment arrived, she was ready to seize it.

“From around the age of ten up until I was seventeen, I felt like I had been waiting,” she revealed.

“I felt like I had been waiting for my underage career to finish so I could actually start playing senior rugby.”

Finn is a preternaturally gifted rugby player. Her kicking is sweeter than liquorice and she controls games with the composure and judgement of a player ten years her senior.

Anyone who observed her during the course of last summer’s Women’s Interprovincial series will testify to that. She walked away with several player-of-the-match gongs and helped Munster to claim the championship, brushing aside Leinster 50-15 in the final.

Finn speaks effusively of that group of Munster players, paying particular tribute to their captain, Ballina woman Maeve Óg O’Leary, who gave her the authority to “make her own decisions and back herself.”

Finn had made her debut for Munster in 2024, but it was this year’s competition that really propelled her career. It was the reason that she was granted her first senior Irish contract last month.

Her performances were exhilarating, and to her, they felt a little surreal.

“During the inter-pros, I really entered that kind of flow state. Like after the games, it took me a while to remember what happened in them,” she recalls.

Fervent passion

For Finn, life has revolved around rugby from an early age.

“It’s always just been rugby,” she says.

“Even when I was playing camogie and stuff, it has always been rugby.”

That fervent passion for the game was in evidence throughout her childhood.

Her younger brother Kevin is a talented athlete, and initially she dabbled in athletics, but grew envious of her older brothers James and Patrick, both of whom were playing rugby with Nenagh Ormond.

She soon followed them out to Lisatunny and convinced her parents to let her join in the action.

Finn comes across as doggedly determined and you get the impression that, regardless of whether her mother Breda and her father Kevin approved or not, she was going to dive headfirst into the action. In fairness, her older sister Johanna had played the game so the precedent was there.

Referees spent their time dragging Finn out of rucks and mauls in order to protect her, but those formative years spent playing with the lads certainly benefitted her in the long run. She is aggressive on the pitch, but it is controlled aggression. She knows when to tackle or sprint ferociously, but also when to hold back. Composure is key to her game.

The young Finn progressed from Nenagh Ormond to UL Bohemian, around the same time as she graduated from Portroe NS to St. Mary’s Secondary School.

She was sent out on loan to Ballina/Killaloe RFC on a couple of occasions and always enjoyed her stints there.

Now in her first year studying business at the University of Limerick, Finn comes across as knowledgeable, articulate, and well-rounded. But even she admits that juggling her rugby career with her educational commitments is a struggle at times. Still, she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Irish contract

Being granted an Irish senior contract in November was a big deal, but again, she felt like she had waited for the moment to happen for long enough.

Finn is one of 35 players based out of the IRFU High Performance Centre in Blanchardstown. During the autumn she was training up to four days a week, travelling up from Limerick and staying overnight in IRFU accommodation. She would condense all her college tutorials into her one free day, Wednesday.

In the middle of all that she was presented with the Munster Women’s Breakthrough Player of the Year award, as well as the Supporters’ Player of the Year trophy. She thoroughly deserved both.

In Irish rugby circles she is widely rated as the next big thing.

Expectations are high, and she knows it, but it doesn’t faze her. As an out-half, Finn carries an immense weight of pressure on her shoulders anyway, and yet she wears it lightly. External hype means nothing. She sets her own standards.

“I know that nobody is ever going to put more pressure on me than I do myself,” she says.

Finn is naturally ambitious. She knows that she is the master of her own destiny and already has lofty goals in mind for this season. Lofty, but realistic.

“Making my debut during the Six Nations is my biggest goal right now,” Finn says.

“I’d love to be fighting for a starting position. That’s always my goal. Even when I went in last year, just to be involved in the camps, my focus was on starting and getting my debut. I want to keep growing and become the rugby player I’ve always wanted to be. But I know a lot of things take time.”

Progression is never linear and there will inevitably be bumps in the road, but Finn seems psychologically mature and equipped to deal with setbacks. She says that mistakes are “unavoidable.” They happen during games and you just have to cope with them.

As she has indicated, she has one eye on the Six Nations, but most of her focus for the time being is on representing the “Clovers” (an amalgamated team featuring players from Munster and Connacht) in the Celtic Challenge competition. They began their campaign with a victory over Welsh side Gwalia Lightning on Saturday. Finn whipped over five conversions in the 35-31 win.

2024 was a golden year for Caitríona Finn. Between AIL titles with UL Bohemian to an inter-pro championship with Munster and then an Ireland call-up, it was sensational stuff. But she is only really starting. She still has “an idea in her head as to the player she wants to be,” and wants to “unlock her next level.”

Her rise has been meteoric indeed, but her intention is to keep sparkling. That’s what stars do.