Ireland back row Aoife Wafer has revealed that she turned down offers from English clubs in order to stay with Leinster.
The 21-year-old was the breakout star of the Six Nations last spring and was twice named Player of the Round as Ireland finished third in the table and qualified for next year's World Cup.
The Wexford woman was nominated for Player of the Championship and named on the Team of the Championship.
Wafer made her seasonal debut off the bench, coming on for just 25 minutes in a pre-arranged cameo, for Tania Rosser’s Leinster outfit on Saturday as they hammered Ulster in the Women's Interprovincial Championship.
A physiotherapy student in UCD and on an IRFU contract, Wafer revealed there was contact with a number of Premiership Women's Rugby [PWR] clubs following her exploits in March and April.
"Yeah, they were, they definitely were," she said without naming any of the interested parties.
"I guess at the end of the day it probably just wasn’t the right time for me just yet.
"It was definitely something I considered but I decided to stay in Ireland and play a bit more rugby here and get another year of college done as well."
While she is happy where she is for the moment, Wafer added that it’s something she would revisit down the line.
"At the end of the day, I’m only 21 so I still have a lot of time and hopefully I’ll be able to keep up playing good rugby to potentially in the future take that opportunity," she said.
"You look at the Premiership and the amount of world-class players that they have in it.
"But I also think when you look at Ireland, we’re still growing in terms of the Celtic Challenge and the inter-provincials and that kind of thing.
"But you can’t deny the amount of talent that the Prem' has in all of those English players and then when you throw in all the Irish players that we have there.
"And you have the Americans and the Canadians and basically everyone that’s in the Prem'.
"It definitely would be something that I’d consider because you wouldn’t really turn down an opportunity to learn from the best to make yourself a better player for Ireland."
Rosser, whose side take on Munster in the final on Saturday in Belfast, said she wasn’t shocked that Wafer (above) had attracted interest from abroad.
A number of Ireland internationals – Sam Monaghan, Edel McMahon, Clíodhna Moloney and Neve Jones among others – ply their trade across the water.
"There’s no surprise that clubs are reaching out to the Irish girls," she said.
"They are plenty of girls here in Ireland that could perform over in that league.
"For us, we hope to keep a lot of them here to grow our own game.
"Aoife’s phenomenal. I’ve nicknamed her 'the chiropractor' because she’s a big crash tackler that hurts people in the contact area.
"We [Leinster] would hate to lose her and the IRFU would hate to lose her as well. Having the option to go to a club and get paid for it, it’s a huge opportunity for young ones.
"And how can we keep them here in Ireland? It's what we are going to have to look at in the future.
"I’d love to see, in the future and I don’t think it’s going to happen too soon, but the provinces going semi-pro and professional and then getting to play in those leagues as well. That might entice players to play here.
"But they go over there and they’ll get to play with English players and I can see that as a player, if it was offered to me when I was playing, you would consider it."
Meanwhile, Ireland and Leinster winger Katie Corrigan remains out with a lower limb injury but is expected to be named on Wednesday in Scott Bemand’s squad for upcoming games against Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
Rosser says she hopes that out-half Dannah O’Brien (above) will come into the reckoning for Saturday’s game having missed the series so far.
"If you want to learn how to play rugby, you play rugby," said the former Ireland scrum-half.
"You can’t learn it on a training pitch. Unfortunately, Dannah sustained an injury before the Six Nations and then she recovered and went on and played and picked up another injury.
"First and foremost, we need to look after the players and that’s what they are doing there.
"Dannah’s a super talent and I know she might be frustrated that she’s not getting game time but if she is available, she puts her hand up for selection.
"The difference with us is she only gets to train with us once a week 'cos she’s in the HPC [High Performance Centre] so that’s difficult for her to get running time with the squad."
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