Scrum-tious! Ireland's rugby WAGs line out
With less than a week to go until the Rugby World Cup, the countdown is on — particularly for this ladies...
IT’S Rugby World Cup time and our Six Nations’ heroes are going all out for a fairytale win. Ready to line out behind them are the current crop of rugby ‘wives and girlfriends’ — WAGS. They’re a pretty indomitable and successful bunch in their own right. It seems behind most good rugby players, there’s a very impressive woman indeed.
Anna Kirwan
OTHER HALF: Ian Madigan OCCUPATION: Make-up artist with Christian Dior GORGEOUS Anna was a well-known face around the sidelines for a good six months but the low-profile couple (pictured above) liked to keep things private. That was until Ian — as some papers described it — ‘debuted’ his amour in March. The proud as punch fly-back posted lots of loved-up shots of the pair and his family in party mode on Instagram after the heady double-whammy of Ireland’s Six Nations victory and his 26th birthday. Anna jetted in to Murrayfield with her lad’s proud parents, Michael and Marie. She’s well in there.
Jessica Moloney
OTHER HALF: Peter O’Mahony OCCUPATION: Trainee solicitor SMART and dazzlingly beautiful, Jessica Moloney and the Cork star have been dating for more than five years now (main picture, right). Jessica has brains to burn, and works as a trainee solicitor. She is not a huge fan of the limelight but always stands by her man for charity events such as fundraising dinners for Cork University Hospital.
Lucy Whitehouse
OTHER HALF: Tommy Bowe OCCUPATION: Nurse BROKENHEARTED fans turned to social media to air their distress when the hunky heartthrob and Ireland winger wed his stunning Lucy, from the Welsh valleys, back in June. To mmy jokes their relationship is l i ke that of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ — Lucy comes from Barry, where the TV show is set. The pair (pictured right)were introduced by mu- tualtu friends in a nightclub in 2011 and he went down ono bended knee on Easter SundayS last year. Blonde LucyL is a former Miss Wales — she won the crown in 2010 — but these days she eschews the spotlight, i n nstead preferring to keep a low profile going about her vocation as a nurse on the wards in a Belfast hospital.
Claire Mulcahy
OTHER HALF: Sean Cronin OCCUPATION: Communications and events manager at BMW A CHILDHOOD sweetheart story, this pair (pictured right) were together for 11 years, before Sean finallyy proposed to the Limerick beauty in New York last year. Rugby royalty were out in f orce to celebrate their nuptials in June, in their native Limerick before moving on to Dromoland Castle Hotel in Clare.
Jessica Redden
OTHER HALF: Rob Kearney OCCUPATION: Student BLONDE stunner
Laura Finnegan
OTHER HALF: Jordi Murphy OCCUPATION: Chemical Engineering student at UCD TIGHT is not the word for Jordi and Laura (pictured right), who first got together as 16-year-old teenagers, having met through friends growing up in Monkstown. They are also studying together at UCD, where Jordi is doing business. They’ve been a bit on-again, off-again, but look rock solid since getting back together last year. Laura is a firm fixture on the sidelines, where her rugby-mad mother and pals often join her. Jessica, 22, from Dundrum, Dublin and Leinster star Rob (pictured top right of opposite page) managed to keep their romance a secret for more than a year, which is no mean feat. The music-lovers’ first official outing was to Hozier’s Olympia gig last December, where they shared a box with Cian Healy and Rob’s brother Dave.
We reckon Rob had his fill o of the paparazzi’s flash guns following his threeyear dalliance with star of Footballers’ Wives, Susie A Amy. It’s well known that R Rob gets a huge amount o of female attention — he’s
Laura Sexton
OTHER HALF: Johnny Sexton OCCUPATION: Schoolteacher THESE childhood sweethearts (pictured right) tied the knot at plush Adare Manor in July 2013, when it seemed the entire village came out to cheer on the couple. Laura, 29, is not one for the limelight and admitted the media attention made her nervous. The couple had baby Luca in Paris last June, when Johnny was playing for French club Racing Metro. Laura, who’s a twin, and Johnny both have very close families so homesickness was a factor, but it was the arrival of Luca that compelled Johnny to return to home soil. Of the move, he said: ‘I’d like my son to see me play for Leinster.’ even admitted to receiving quite a bit of fanmail — but he kept his head down after Susie, until Jessica turned it.
Emily O’Leary
OTHER HALF: Paul O’Connell OCCUPATION: Office worker RUGBY’S golden couple met out on the town in Limerick way back in 2000 when 6’6” Paul was an up-and-coming player with Young Munster. Not one to be rushed, the gentle giant was one of the last of the lads to pop the question, in June 2012. But when he did, he threw a mighty big fat French wedding a year later, when the pair (pictured right) exchanged vows in a charming ceremony near Toulouse. It saw their cute threeyear-old Paddy steal the show, when he played page boy, carrying his favourite toy rabbit. The couple’s baby daughter Lola arrived last year.
ElviraE Fernandez
OTHERO HALF: Simon Zebo OCCUPATION:O Model T THIS stunning 22-year- old senorita fr from Madrid mesmerised the 25-yearold Munster wonder boy when they met last year. ‘She keeps me level-headed and on the ground,’ he raved previously. Af After a long-distance relationship for a few months, Elvira moved to Ireland lat late last year and the pair — who als also did a good job of keeping their
Sophie Marron
OTHER HALF: Robbie Henshaw OCCUPATION: Student TOWERING Connacht star Robbie Henshaw — at 6’3” — was dating gorgeous brunette Sophie for a year before they finally stepped out together in public on the redr carpet at theth Pride of Irel la and Awards lastl year. Not oneo f or t he sidelines,s Sophie spent the summer worki ing in the US o on a J1. But we’ve no doubt every Irish bar with a fiddle playing made her pine f or her lad back home. This is because Robbie is not only very handy with the rugbyru ball — he also takes after generations of musicians in his family and plays the accordion, fiddle, guitar and piano.
Sinéad Corcoran
OTHER HALF: Jack McGrath OCCUPATION: Radiographer SINÉAD CORCORAN is a well-known regular cheerleader on the sidelines — and if anyone takes a f all, she’s on hand to give a second opinion. The br a i ny brunette has a degree in Diagnostic Radiography from St George’s University of London. Sinéad always cuts a very glamorous figure but isn’t at all precious. Cian Healy’s ex, Holly Carpenter previously confessed that herself and Sinéad often got dolled up in the ladies’ toilets after matches before hitting the town.