'The IRFU offered me a contract. That same night I found out I was pregnant'

THE IRFU’S HIGH performance centre in Abbotstown is well used to hosting special guests and on a busy Tuesday afternoon, there’s a notable fuss being made in the corridors around one of the many dressing rooms in the complex.

As Ashleigh Orchard takes 20 minutes out of her day to discuss her journey to earning a spot in the Ireland Women’s Sevens squad for this summer’s Olympics, her 10-month-old daughter, Arabella, is being doted over by a photographer.

Arabella has become a regular at the HPC but still commands VIP status.

“She just stood there for a second,” explains Orchard. “She got distracted with the cameras and she just stood. When we were in Madrid she did her first wave because the girls are constantly, like “C’mon, clap your hands, wave!” and she just went [makes wave action] bye. It was so cute.

She’s crawling and things now as well. I was hoping she’d take her first steps on the indoor pitch there. I thought that would be a good one.”

That any of this is happening remains somewhat surreal for Orchard.

Orchard [née Baxter] first represented Ireland in 2012 and played for the 15s at both the 2014 and 2017 World Cups. A dual-code star, she was also involved with the Ireland Sevens until a persistent calf problem led to her stepping away, with her international career seemingly coming to a close in 2018.

Orchard left was part of the Ireland's squad at the 2014 15s World Cup.

But then the picture changed. After a spell as player-coach at Cooke, Orchard’s injury troubles cleared up and a road back to the Sevens programme opened up.

She returned for a training tournament in Elche in October 2022 and then travelled to Dubai with a development squad in December 2022. Later that month, the phone rang. On the line was IRFU High Performance Director David Nucifora.

“David rang me to tell me he was going to offer me a contract, would I come back in in January? I said yeah on the phone, and that same night I found out I was pregnant. I had to go back to David to let him know I couldn’t take the contract.

So I suppose at that point, I was like, ah this is a new adventure, I’m not going back, I’m not going to an Olympics.

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“I had Arabella obviously, and I didn’t think I was going to go back. I started doing a couch to 5k. I was thinking I’ll do a marathon or something.”

The IRFU had bigger things in mind, and Women’s Sevens head coach Allan Temple-Jones invited the 32-year-old back into camp, with an eye to potentially playing her way into an Olympic squad.

Baxter training with Ireland this week as David Nucifora watches on.

“I just thought, do you know what, I’m going to give this everything I have and I’ll take it out of my hands and it’s in the coach’s hands and if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I just didn’t want to have a regret. So I went for it.”

Having welcomed Arabella into the world last August, in February of this year Orchard returned to the Sevens programme. In May she featured on the Singapore leg of the World Series, more than five years on from her last appearance for Ireland.

Arabella has been there for the journey, with the youngest member of Ireland’s travelling party joining Ashleigh and her husband, Jonny, to Singapore and Madrid, flying and staying with the team.

“Everyone has been super helpful but there’s an element of you don’t want her to get in the way of other people. Initially at the beginning I was really trying to separate it both, but then the squad have really taken to her as well.

“I think she’s actually had a really positive effect on the team. They’re able to switch off with her too because she’s always around which is really nice. They help me out so much with her as well. It’s got easier because of that, I think. I call them her aunties.

“And a big bit of it is the support from the management and the team around.

“I’m on maternity leave for a year to be there for her. I’m still feeding her. I didn’t want to stop that just so I can do this. I very much wanted to put her first and the fact that the IRFU and management team all bought into that as well… They were like, ‘Bring her down, we’ll put you, Jonny and Arabella up when we need to down here, and same when we’re away, they can travel with us so you’re able to still have that relationship.’

“As a mum, it’s hard to just leave your child. If I was going away for two weeks and I had to leave her, I was kind of like, I’m not going to go. So it’s me and her, or it’s not either of us.”

Apart from the odd sleepless night on the road, the balancing act has settled into a manageable pattern, and Orchard’s contribution on the pitch made all the right impressions with the coaching staff.

Baxter returned to Sevens duty earlier this year.

Last week Orchard’s remarkable journey hit another milestone with news she had been selected on the 12-player squad to represent Ireland in Paris.

Orchard doesn’t mind admitting that the Olympics is a particularly special event for her. In the wonderful window of youth where sporting occasions can be all-consuming, Orchard remembers being fully absorbed by the magic of the Games.

“When I was younger I was obsessed with the Olympics. I really was obsessed, that’s all I wanted to do.

“I used to swim, so in my head I was like ‘I want to swim in the Olympics’ – but I was too short and had tiny feet. So I came into 15s [rugby] in 2012 and it was just around that point that Sevens was starting to kick off and the Olympic carrot was being dangled, but when we failed to qualify for Rio and Tokyo I didn’t think it was a possibility for me anymore, to be honest. So this is kind of this complete bonus. Honestly, I just want to get there.

My biggest Olympic memory in my head is when Kelly Holmes won the 800m and 1500m [Athens, 2004]. I became obsessed with her.

“I made a website about her. I can see the picture that was taken of her crossing the line of the 800m.”

Orchard has searched the web for her Kelly Holmes fansite, to no success.

Next month, she’ll get to put her own mark on the Games. The women’s squad are in action after the men, with the Women’s Sevens to take place on 28, 29 and 30 July.

It’s all starting to feel very real, but there’s still some big decisions to be made, with Arabella not yet guaranteed to be on the plane.

“That conversation is still to be had,” Orchard reveals, “but I hope so.”