BLOODY. BRILLIANT. Ireland star Aoife Wafer on the Six Nations

Ireland have a genuine superstar in Aoife Wafer, who has also made an immediate impression in her debut season in the PWR for Harlequins.

Helen M Jerome is lucky enough to speak to Wafer about growing up and watching her mam play, pulling on that green jersey, Irish players to watch out for, and all things Six Nations…

First time I witnessed Irish rugby superstar Aoife Wafer in the flesh, she wasn’t on the pitch, but sitting right behind me, grinning while banging a huge drum (below, left) as Harlequins took on Saracens at the StoneX.

Several matches later in cold, driving rain and swirling wind, I saw her go into battle in a memorable night match at Trailfinders (below, centre and right).

Blood trickled down her face from a challenge, but with a Terry Butcher-style bandage wound round her head, she continued regardless, helping Quins over the line (literally) with all-round heroics and specifically a hat-trick of tries.

This is Wafer’s debut season in the PWR, and anyone who has watched the 23-year-old play cannot fail to be impressed. She joined Harlequins straight after the World Cup in 2025, having signed for them in May. Before this Wafer had played back in Ireland for Leinster and won back-to-back Celtic Challenge titles with the Wolfhounds.

She had a frustrating start to her Quins career, having broken her collarbone and ruptured her medial collateral ligament against France, in a tasty World Cup quarterfinal in which she was also bitten on the forearm by an opponent.

Ironically, Wafer had literally just returned from PCL and MCL injuries, so this was her only match in the World Cup and her luck was out. Hence being sidelined and getting out her drum.

There’s no stopping Wafer though. She knuckled down and continues studying for her BSc in Physiotherapy at St Mary’s University in the mornings, then goes off to training in the afternoons.

Finally, she made her much-anticipated Quins debut as a sub in their gritty home win over Sale Sharks on December 13 2025 (yes, I was there for this; photos below). And despite her delayed entry into the PWR she has seven tries so far this season and an over 90 percent tackle success rate for Quins.

Playing as a flanker or Number 8, one of the treats when watching Wafer with Quins is seeing her team up with her pal and partner in crime, Black Ferns star, Liana Mikaele-Tu’u (above, right). At line-outs and scrums and in their ferocious tackling, they are a force to be reckoned with.

They are also fast friends, teaching each other their native tongues, and clearly loving each other’s company and rugby IQ. And Wafer is such a perfectionist, that after each match she’ll watch it back a handful of times and pick over each moment.

For Ireland, Wafer was Player of the Tournament in the 2025 Six Nations and has twice been voted Ireland player of the year. No doubt Mikaele-Tu’u was already aware of her club teammate from Wafer’s two tries against the Black Ferns in WXV1, and as the Kiwi heads off to PAC4, she’ll no doubt be keeping across Ireland’s progress in the Six Nations.

Aoife Wafer is one of the best back-rows in rugby, but she won’t be taking on the other five nations alone. Sporting her distinctive red scrum-cap, she’s going to be lining up alongside some formidable talents from across the PWR and Ireland, led by new captain Erin King, and under the watchful eye of their head coach, Scott Bemand.

We speak about the Six Nations across two conversations, one at Harlequins and one on Wafer’s birthday (sorry, Aoife), which also happened to be the launch date for this year’s tournament…

What does the Six Nations mean to you, Aoife?

I probably can’t put into words what it actually means to wear an Irish jersey, and being a proud Irish woman, it’s something I’m very passionate about.

And yeah, the girls like to get a bit of slagging out of me, the fact that I’m over in England!

But no, look, I love playing for my country.

And I love being home.

I love being with my team.

And yeah, to do it in Six Nations, and just represent the fans of Ireland.

I probably can’t even put into words, to be honest with you.

I think in the Six Nations, it’s going to be incredibly exciting because I think we owe a few teams a few little nudges.

And what’s your first memory of the Six Nations?

It’s probably actually women’s Six Nations games, Irish games in Ashbourne.

Because growing up, I knew I always wanted to play for Ireland.

I picked up a rugby ball at six years old.

Straightaway I was like: yeah, I want to play for Ireland.

I didn’t exactly know there was a women’s team, so I was like: right, I’m just going to have to do it for the men.

But thankfully, my parents knew otherwise, and they brought me to every game they could, whether it was Leinster or Ireland or whether it was local clubs… or like my mam was literally on one of the starting teams in our local club.

She herself and my dad just showed me that women’s rugby exists, and Ireland were actually very powerful at women’s rugby at that time as well.

So yeah, probably just going down to games in Ashbourne and whether it’s the lights turning off in the middle of a game or whether it’s Ireland winning the Six Nations or the Grand Slam or whatever it is, Ireland were extremely powerful back then.

And I grew up in an era where Irish rugby was very successful in the women’s game.

Which Irish newcomers should we look out for in the Six Nations?

We’re lucky enough to have nine new cappers in the squad, a lot of whom have been around the group for a long time and have been ripping it up in the Celtic Challenge too.

I think new-cap-wise, like you could probably look out for the likes of Caitriona Finn (20).

She’s obviously been tearing up with Clovers, picked up a little niggle a few weeks back and has been working away coming back from that. And she’s playing 10 and can play centre too and is studying a lot from Dannah [O’Brien].

I’m sure her working away in a centralised programme too under Scott [Bemand, Ireland head coach] has been really helpful to her.

We’ve loads of fours in that space as well, whether it’s Jemima Adams Verling or Beth Buttimer. So there’s loads of talent in that in the Irish rugby squad that are coming up in our new cappers.

And where should we look, if we really like the way Ireland play, which obviously we will, and who are the Irish players we should check out in the PWR teams?

Quins, yeah, you should look out for Quins!

Yeah, obviously Doro [Dorothy Wall] is playing extremely well over at Exeter, absolutely tearing it up in the pack and really dominating that line-out space as well.

And yeah, obviously Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald there as well in Exeter, and Nancy McGillivray.

I’m sure I’m missing out people, but obviously in Gloucester as well you’ve Sam [Monaghan] and Neve [Jones] and El Perry as well and you’ve Niamh O’Dowd there now too, or whether it’s Brittany Hogan over in Sale…

There’s loads of Irish around the place, even in Ealing [at Trailfinders], there’s Niamh Gallagher and Grace Moore and all of those players too.

So yeah, there’s a load of us over here now and I feel like every Irish player is elevating their game while they’re over here and hopefully we’re teaching everyone else a few things too!

Niamh Gallagher is the one who seems to have come on really fast this season. Her kicking has been extraordinary, hasn’t it?

Yeah, you can see when Ealing need a boot, they really turn to her, whether it was, for example, when we played them the other week, we scored the same amount of tries, but Niamh’s boot was exceptional, and it won them the game.

I think that’ll be really valuable when you come to the games that are tight.

Obviously Dan [Dannah O’Brien] has got an exceptional boot, and she’s shown that she’s just ice cold as well in those moments where conversions or penalties are needed.

So to have another person that you can lean on from that place-kicking duty is incredibly important and yeah, Niamh’s just great around the pitch too.

It’s going to be a really exciting Six Nations, I think!

Photos: Six Nations, Helen M Jerome

See Ireland take on the Red Roses at Twickenham on 11 April at 14.25 BST.

Watch on the BBC or try to get a ticket (it’s almost sold-out) at: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/rfu/Events/Index