The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
SIOBHAN FLEMING INTERVIEW:
Answering Ireland’s call
WHEN I contacted Siobhan Fleming with regards to doing an interview on her impending retirement from rugby, the Currow native was in the middle of tending cattle and asked if I’d give her a buzz back later on that day. Siobhan was doing what she loves the most, working on the land and the open countryside, a labour of love since she was a child growing up on the family farm in Curracity.
Grand Slams and captaining Munster wouldn’t have even entered her head back then. Her family were very much a Gaelic football household, with Siobhan’s uncle Mick representing Kerry from 1963 to 1970, picking up five Munster Championship medals in the process. Siobhan dabbled in Gaelic football as well, and was good enough to represent the Kerry senior team for three seasons, but it wasn’t until rugby came calling at the ripe old age of 27 that Siobhan finally found her niche and passion.
The irony of it all was that Siobhan had called time on her Gaelic football career because of the travelling that it entailed throughout Ireland, but by default she ended up in the far flung cities across the UK, France and Italy through her rugby prowess. Being from Currow, and its great rugby heritage, meant that she always had a keen interest in the oval ball, but, as she explained, it took a friend’s intervention to get her togging out for Tralee RFC.
“One of the girls that I played football with was going into Tralee RFC and said, ‘why don’t you come along’, and off I went, and that was the beginning. Who knew what it would turn out like! I definitely never imagined that that’s the way that it would go for me.
“I hadn’t played an awful lot of sports underage, it’s not that I wasn’t able to, but I was always a pure home bird and a bit shy, and I just wanted to be at home. Maybe this meant that I was rearing to go when I got a taste for it when I was older. Anyway, after that first training with Tralee I had the bug and I was blessed to have an amazing career in rugby afterwards.”
After a couple of seasons playing with the club, Fleming was getting an awful lot of notice for her displays at number 7, and Munster came calling for the 2010/11 season. Her progression thereafter was the stuff of legend. In her very first season Fleming picked up the Munster Women’s Player of the Year award, and it was obvious that she would be a mainstay in the Munster side for as long as she wanted. Fleming would go on to captain her province, and she skippered them to the inter-provincial title in 2017.
“I was handed the Munster jersey which was amazing, but it wasn’t until it was all over, until I got home, and when the fuss and the drama died down that it really hits you. You kind of go ‘did I just play number 7 for Munster, did that really just happen?’
“It’s then that I realised the enormity of it and of what I’d been a part of. It was such a privilege to wear the jersey. When you are handed a jersey it’s your sole responsibility to hand that jersey back to the next person in a position that’s better than when you received it. When you are in the jersey you do everything that you can to do it proud, and I hope that I did so.
“I’ll never know how I became captain, but I suppose it was more about what I do than what I say. I focused about what had to be done on the pitch and I always felt that I led through my actions. You see, coming from a farming background, you were part of a team from day one because everyone had to chip in and help out and work together, so without even realising it I was part of a team from a very young age.”
Siobhan Fleming’s rugby career was very much on the upward spiral. Ireland manager Philip Doyle was keeping a close eye on the athletic flanker and liked what he saw. Fleming was soon catapulted into the Irish senior squad and she was to play her part in the most successful Irish ladies rugby team of all time.
At 32 years of age Siobhan’s first cap came as a replacement against France. Ireland would go on to claim a 6 Nations Grand Slam for the first time ever that season, but the game against old enemy England was the stand-out moment for the Currow girl.
“We beat Italy in the final game of the campaign to claim the Grand Slam, but for me the day that we beat England up in Ashbourne was the stand out. That was the start of the journey to the Grand Slam because we had never beaten England before and the fact that we had beaten England, who had won numerous titles throughout the years, was huge. It made us realise that we could potentially beat any team.
“What made it extra special for me was that it was my first full international cap. I got to wear the number 6 jersey that day and it was my first start for Ireland. It was one of the games of my career because I played out of my skin. There was nobody, or nothing, that was getting in my way. All of my family were there, and all of my friends. It was by far the most outstanding memory that I have when it comes to international rugby.”
Fleming won 15 Irish caps in what was a glittering career in the green jersey, and she continued to represent Munster up to her triumphant inter-provincial campaign in 2017. Her career didn’t end there though, and she continued to wear the blue and white of Tralee with the pride and burning desire that she had always shown on the rugby pitch.
On March 8 just passed she played her last home game for her club at O’Dowd Park, although she still has league and cup finals to play later on in the year. Fleming is certainly good enough, and fit enough, to play on, but she has very good reasons for calling time on her career.
“It’s a good time to go. I’m getting married in June to David Horan from Glenflesk. David is a dairy and sheep farmer so from that aspect and the fact that I’m working full-time (as an Special Needs Assistant in Currow NS) and farming at home as well, and I’ve just qualified as a play therapist, it’s time to move on now to the next chapter.
“From the rugby perspective it’s a good time to go because there’s a very new young team in Tralee. It’s great playing with them and they have such interest and talent, but it’s like the end of an era as well because all of my friends have retired, and Riona Kennedy was recently forced out with a neck injury. Myself and Riona were the last of the old stock really. There’s two new young enthusiastic coaches there as well so the future is good.
“I’m so fortunate that I’m able to go out on my terms. Riona was forced out of it. She would have kept going if she could but it wasn’t possible with her injury. I’m so privileged to be able to say, ‘jeepers, I’ve had a great time with rugby, I’m going to hang up my boots now while I’m still enjoying it and loving it’ because there’s nothing worse than getting to a stage of your life where you end up hating what you loved so much. I still feel that I’m playing well, there’s nothing worse than thinking they are only playing me for what I’ve done in the past. It’s in safe hands now though and that’s really great.”
Fleming is leaving Tralee rugby in a good place, but she thinks that further progress could be made if they were able to amalgamate into a Team Kerry and strive to compete at AIL level once more. With only four teams operating in the Munster League at present she feels that a move back to that level of rugby would be a huge step forward.
“If the team that is there now stays together then they can move on and play AIL. You really need a solid team and numbers to compete. A lot of our girls don’t know what it’s like to lose a game and there’s a massive jump to AIL, but you have to experience it to realise it. You want to aim to be playing the best though because you aren’t going to get any better by playing the same type of rugby. You learn so much more from the higher level of games.”
There is a slight reluctance in Siobhan’s voice as she contemplates her weekends away from rugby in the future. The word retirement doesn’t sit easily with her, and she sees herself helping out with the club that she has given so much to going forward into the future.
“I’ll definitely help out. I hate the word retirement, I’m allergic to it. It was lovely that the occasion of my last home game was marked and there was a lovely presentation and slide show in the club bar afterwards. Mike Keane, who’s my former coach and now President of the Munster Branch, a very good friend of mine, made a lovely speech. It was great to have that, but even with Munster and Ireland I never ‘retired’ so it’s a word that doesn’t sit well with me. I prefer to say that I’m not playing at this time.
“I’ll walk away now at 38 years of age with amazing memories. It’s great to be leaving on my own terms. I’m looking forward to married life and what the future may bring. I suppose my career in rugby has been magical because the path just opened up in front of me.
“I worked extremely hard and the doors just happened to open for me. I was fortunate that my family were with me every step of the way, and for me that is the greatest memory of all.”