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The versatile backrow is a poster girl for the Women’s National Talent Squad pathway
High on life is how Jemima Adams Verling puts it, and no wonder. Hers has been quite the journey, from not really having an interest in sport as a kid to taking up rugby after moving from primary to secondary school in Coláiste Mhuire Ballygar about eight years ago.
Now 20 years of age, Adams Verling will make her third start in as many weeks for Ireland’s senior team on Saturday, when Scott Bemand’s team meet Japan at Virgin Media Park, having made her Test debut against the USA at the start of the international window. The versatile backrow is a poster girl for the Women’s National Talent Squad pathway that was established in 2022 to identify, develop and support players aged 16 to 23 with the potential to make national squads.
Adams Verling is one of a number of exciting young players to emerge from Connacht as part of that system, a group that includes her Ireland roommate Ailish Quinn and Ivana Kirpati, another forward off the Creggs production line. Having previously represented Ireland at under-18 level, the Roscommon woman was an integral part of Ireland’s under-21 Grand Slam-winning team last year and it was after that, in September, that Bemand added her to the senior squad.
Now her third start awaits.
“Insane,” she said, smiling. “It literally doesn’t feel real still. I’m just high on life at the moment. It’s brilliant, memories I’ll hold near and dear.
So many low moments, I’ll go back to that. ” Adams Verling was the team’s blindside flanker that day and had been replaced by the time the visitors staged their successful comeback at Tallaght Stadium. The bang she took on her nose early in the game didn’t faze her.
“I had to laugh, the whole game I don’t think it stopped running,” she said. “I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, will this stop pumping blood? ’ “I think it ended up straighter than it was before the game. I don’t even think it broke.
I think it just slowly went back which was great news for me. It was a double win for me, anyway: my first cap and a straighter nose. ” She replaced the injured Aoife Wafer at number eight for last Saturday’s 31-24 victory over Japan and it will be the same tomorrow in Cork, with the Six Nations player of the championship not risked due to an ankle knock ahead of the squad’s trip to South Africa next week.
Bemand is using this window as an opportunity to cast the net further and there are first Test starts for Jane Clohessy and Niamh Gallagher, while replacements Sophie Barrett, Kate Jordan and Alana McInerney are poised for their debuts. Adams Verling is walking taller for the experience she has gained alongside experienced backrows such as Wafer, Erin King and Brittany Hogan.
“It’s probably that bit of confidence as well, having a cap or two under my belt,” she said. “I feel a bit more confident in myself now and the girls are amazing for just filling you full of confidence and being so helpful.
“Something that sticks with me is just trying to get one per cent better every day, it’s all about just trying to improve yourself bit by bit and if you’re putting all your effort in, you can’t go wrong. “The backrows that are here with me are absolutely amazing, so probably didn’t in my wildest dream imagine getting three starts, but so grateful for the opportunity. There’s nothing better than representing your country. So just buzzing.
” Ireland: Gallagher; Parsons, McGarry, Dalton, O’Connor; O’Brien, Lane; Djougang, Jones, Cahill; Clohessy, Tuite-O’Connor; Hogan, King , Adams Verlong. Replacements: Buttimer, McGrath, Barrett, Jordan, Moore, Reilly, Breen, McInerney.
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