Today: Friday, March 19, 2010

Fiona Coghlan

Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann

Article list

Taking on the champs

Last update: 10:49 | 11.03.10

Fiona Coghlan's Rugby Diary We are at the halfway point of this year’s Six Nations championship, and we are sitting fourth in the table with one win and two losses. This leaves us with two colossal games to play at home, against Wales and

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Hard knocks in France

Last update: 10:59 | 25.02.10

Fiona Coghlan's Rugby Diary After the second game of the Six Nations campaign, we are not where we would have hoped. We targeted the French game with laser precision, as we had never beaten France on their home turf. We knew it would be a tough

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Dampened spirits at the end of this year’s interpros

Last update: 16:51 | 10.12.09

Last Sunday was D-Day for us – the final of this winter’s interprovincial tournament. The weekend began early on Saturday morning, when I met up with the rest of the Leinster squad in Donnybrook to do a team run. Later in the afternoon we gathered

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Munster get bragging rights

Last update: 09:24 | 05.11.09

Yet again the bragging rights go to Munster after the second round of the Interprovincial Series in the Rebel County.

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Illness won't hold me back

Last update: 04:23 | 22.10.09

We had our first interprovincial game against Connacht, and we come away with a comprehensive 33–8 victory.

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Tough start to the season

Last update: 15:56 | 10.09.09

It’s September, and the rugby season has officially started. The provinces are in Magners League action, and the clubs are participating in various competitions throughout the country.

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Rugby fever takes hold

Last update: 12:53 | 27.08.09

At last, we’re back on the pitch! At Lein-ster, Tania Rosser has taken over as assistant coach to the backs, acting as player/coach. I think that her and Philip Doyle are a great combination and work really well together. Doyle is the most organised coach

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Irish sport needs support

Last update: 01:48 | 13.08.09

After numerous physio sessions, things for me are now back on track. I am once again running at full tilt and I’ve started lifting again. Although everything has been pretty much in straight lines, my knee feels strong and I have been comfortable doing

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Fighting fit for the season

Last update: 17:52 | 16.07.09

Well the British and Irish Lions had a spectacular bounce back from their first two losses. The third game was again played at altitude in Johannesburg – more than a mile above sea level. But the Lions were adjusted to the climate, and from start to finish

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Lions playing with pride

Last update: 15:48 | 02.07.09

Leinster training has officially begun, with pre-season preparations in the gym. Now there are 35 squad members in the gym at six in the morning every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I have been doing this for the last four weeks, and the early mornings

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We are the champions!

Last update: 00:35 | 07.05.09

All our hard work came to fruition on 25 April when my club UL Bohs took home the AIL championship.

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England loss leaves us bloodied but unbowed

Last update: 18:47 | 12.03.09

We’re midway through the women’s Six Nations, and it’s a wide-open race. This is the first time in years that the title could go one of four ways.  France, England Wales and Ireland have all lost one game each. Now we’re heading

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Six Nations is wide open

Last update: 17:28 | 26.02.09

Two games, two wins: the best start to a Six Nations we’ve ever had! Our latest opponents, Italy, may only be in their third championship but have had good money pumped into their game.  The Italians do suffer from a number of their players competing

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Now on the road to victory

Last update: 16:27 | 12.02.09

We had our last session before the Six Nations on Saturday 31 January on the excellent all-weather rugby pitch at UCD. It was a nice change not being covered in muck while we trained! There were 28 squad members there, each of us looking to impress the coaches

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‘We need to train our minds’

Last update: 18:02 | 29.01.09

It’s all systems go towards the Six Nations, with just two weeks before the first game of this year’s competition. Although we have had a number of squad sessions, you can never have enough as there are always areas to improve on.

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‘Onwards and upwards - but we must take our chances’

Last update: 05:25 | 15.01.09

The England game panned out better than we would have expected at this stage of the season. Things got off to an awkward start with some confusion prior to the match about the singing of anthems – England were adamant that this was

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Gearing up for the Six Nations

Last update: 07:13 | 01.01.09

The national squad is now back into the swing of things. We had a training session two weekends ago in Alsaa, near Dublin Airport, and there were loads of new faces, which makes things exciting as places are up for grabs. The competition in trying to secure

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Braving the winter chill

Last update: 04:13 | 04.12.08

There has been some disappointing news for the Irish squad, as number of experienced players have decided to retire or take a year out of rugby.

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