Ballymena native Neve Jones is captain and top try-scorer at Malone, the vice-captain of Ulster and last season’s Women’s All-Ireland League Rising Star Award-winner.

Jones said that a couple of girls at Malone had played Gaelic football their whole lives, noting “they were the version of me with GAA, the way I was with rugby.

“I had never thought about taking it up until the East Belfast GAA club started and my friend Brogan, who plays with me at Malone, said we should give it a go.

“Although it’s a completely different set-up, the general movement of play is pretty similar. You’re always looking to invade the space and the aggression is probably slightly more intense in rugby, but it does help to have it in Gaelic.”

Having played rugby with her dad and brother since before she could walk, Jones officially took up the sport at the age of six, playing mini rugby with the boy in Ballymena. She disclosed that she never had any problems playing the sport, but more so getting to play it.

Limited options

Neve added: “My schools had nothing for me. There was no rugby – it was hockey for girls and that was it. The boys played rugby and the girls played hockey.

“When I first started playing mini rugby as a child, the boys were a bit like, ‘Why’s a girl here?’ and they wouldn’t pass to me, but as the years went on they started to stand up for me.”

The multi-talented athlete attended Cambridge House Grammar School and then over to Ballymena Academy for her A-Levels, but when she got to first year at secondary school her mum wouldn’t let her play rugby with the boys anymore.

At the age of 14 she went to a rugby summer camp where she was the only female. However, someone there gave her mother contact details for Malone where she has been playing ever since and where she got scouted to play for Ulster U18s, which has now led to her vice-captain position on the senior squad.

Now living in East Belfast and playing for the first GAA team to be set up there in nearly 50 years, Jones has taken a shine to the sport, which she had never watched or played before. She was surprised at the intricacy of footwork and fitness needed for Gaelic football, but finds it has helped improve her rugby abilities and vice versa.

“Rugby can be more physically tiring when it comes to using your upper body, whereas Gaelic football is all legs. My legs are GASSED after a Gaelic game because there’s so much running, with no breaks,” she said.

“You obviously can’t run into the player so you need a lot of footwork to work out how to get from A to B without really touching (or fouling) anyone, which I wouldn’t really use in rugby.”

Learning the basics

She added that the high balls in Gaelic help her rugby skills immensely when it comes to improving aim and catching skills. Jones is still coming to grasps with the rules and elements of the GAA, as is to be expected for any newcomer to a 135-year-old sport.

Despite not being allowed to lift her opponents as she normally would in a rugby tackle, she maintains she is going to stick at it as much as she can, adding that she likes every aspect of it, including “the challenge that it brings, both mentally and physically”.

Having started out in East Belfast’s ladies’ development squad, she quickly rose through the ranks and has so far played at centre half-forward, centre half-back and midfield positions for the Championship team.

She told BBC Sport that she’s still in shock she was even picked and thinks ‘are they sure this is right?’.

“I’m not really sure I’m ever doing it right, but I just roll with it, it’s great craic. I first thought ‘oh no, is this for me?’ but after the first session I knew I loved it and wanted to keep going and I was the same with rugby,” she added.

“The people that are at the clubs are so welcoming and want you to get better to help the team get better. You’ll make friends across the board with any sport you try really.”

Neve studied sports coaching at university and her current job entails visiting all the schools and clubs in Ulster to coach prospective young people that may make up Ulster Rugby’s under-18s teams.

Her favourite part of the role is promoting female rugby throughout Northern Ireland, which she hopes she can do with all sport.

She tells young girls: “Give it a go. You won’t regret it. If I met people on a night out or a person in the street, strangers would often be surprised at the fact girls could even play rugby.

“If you ask most people, they wouldn’t be able to name you a female rugby player or GAA player, or any female athlete at that top level. Whereas if you asked name me one male player they could name you 10. If we don’t have kids continuing to come through, women’s rugby wouldn’t exist.”

Although East Belfast Ladies are now out of the Down Junior Championship and near the end of their first season, and Jones is putting her rugby career first, she is keen to return to Gaelic football next year as well.