Echo Sport Replay: O’Reilly on a career that cracked the glass ceiling for Irish women rugby referees

By the end of that year she had again hit the headlines both here and overseas after becoming the first women to ever make the IRFU’s National Referees Panel, paving the way for her to officiate in Men’s All-Ireland League and Pro 12 (now Pro 14) games.

Retiring last year after some six years figuring among the top Irish rugby referees, O’Reilly took some time to look back on a journey that is among the most significant for Irish women in rugby and sport in general.

“Rugby came to me very late in life so it’s strange that I achieved what I did in the sport” she told The Echo.

“I went travelling in Australia and that’s when I started to get interested in rugby.

“I was over there in ’99, in Sydney, when I was in my early twenties and they had a local team there.

Helen O’Reilly refereeing the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final match between Canada and host nation France Photo by Brendan Moran/ SPORTSFILE

“I didn’t play because I was moving on to the next place as you do when you’re backpacking, but when I came home I contacted a club here, Ashbourne, out where I’m living now.

“I played with Ashbourne for about six or seven years and won an All-Ireland Cup with them and then I went over to St Mary’s in Templeogue and was successful as well over there, won an All-Ireland League with them.

“I finished up playing rugby in 2009. It had been such a big part of my life for those ten, 12 years. I was addicted to it and when I stopped playing then I really felt it. I wanted to be involved in the game, but I didn’t know was it going to be coaching or what.

“A good friend of mine, who only recently passed away Declan Mahon, who would be very well known in refereeing circles, he kept at me to referee.

“He bought me my first whistle, got me up on to the pitch and I just started off from there.

“To be honest I just thought this was a way to occupy my time. I was finding it hard after retiring, but I never dreamed it would go in the way that it went.

“My first match would have been just running around the pitch up in Ashbourne, kind of an Under 12s game. Just starting off with kids’ rugby.

“Then I did a trial match and was accepted into the ARLB as a full member. So you’re starting at the very bottom, just doing kids games around the local area.

“It’s a horrible feeling when you start refereeing. It’s like learning how to drive.

You’re very conscious that I’m only starting at this. You’re making mistakes and you’re out of your comfort zone and there were times driving home in the car when I was thinking ‘I don’t think I can do this.’

“The sideline can be very unforgiving. I often see that with young referees starting off.

“I was making progress in Leinster. My name was out there. I was doing good games and I was refereeing quite well and then I was doing touch judge for a few of the international games.

“My first international was a friendly. It was at my home club in Ashbourne. It was Ireland versus Spain. It was a warm-up for a Six Nations game. I think they thought it was either sink or swim

“I suppose for the ARLB, they had one female refereeing at a lower level, but they never had a referee that made it at international, Six Nations, World Cup or anything.

“It was never an obstacle [being a woman]. If anything, it was encouraged, it was pushed. They [ARLB] wanted it more than I initially realised I wanted it. They really wanted to open doors for females.

“With the ARLB, I would have been refereeing around Leinster, men’s and women’s club rugby and elite schools rugby, all that type of stuff.

“For me, it’s really about getting the games under your belt. That’s when you’re really learning your craft. You’re refereeing all types and all standard of games.

“You’re learning different skills of how to manage players, how to manage discipline, how to manage a fight on the pitch. You’re just learning these skills.

“They say on average we can make about 300 decisions in 80 minutes and sometimes those decisions are not to make a decision.

“It could be lashing rain, it could be freezing cold, your heart rate could be up at 160, you could run eight kilometres in a game and then you’re making decisions in a split second and you’re making them 300 times.

“I start getting noticed by a few people. Now at this stage, I wasn’t on the National Panel where the top 50 odd referees in the country are.

“No woman in Ireland had ever got on to National Panel and I don’t know whether I was happening too quick for them or whether they were ready for that, but funnily enough I got my first Six Nations match in 2013 over in London and that was England versus Italy.

“I was a bag of nerves ahead of that game. It was going to be live on Sky Sports, I was going to be using a television match official, so there were a lot of different elements coming into it and it was huge pressure.

“I would say the feeling after I blew the final whistle and it had gone well was one of major relief and it was only then that I could enjoy it.

“Can I say that I enjoyed the build up? No not particularly. It’s the cruel part about sport at any level- the nerves sometimes outweigh the occasion.

“But to achieve anything, you have to go outside your comfort zone. That’s always the hurdle.

“That was the year Ireland first won the Women’s Six Nations. They did the Grand Slam that year. I remember the captain of the Ireland Women’s team Fiona Coghlan congratulating me. It was a huge step forward for Irish women’s rugby that year.

“I got another Six Nations match after that game and I went on and did a good few more internationals that year and, towards the end of the year, they have the November internationals. That’s the prep for the World Cup.

“I was appointed to referee France and England in France which was a huge game for me. They would have been two who were kind of favourites for the World Cup.

“France won that match and it was one of my favourite games to ever referee.

“The support the women get over in France is phenomenal. They don’t see men or women playing rugby, they just see rugby. I think there was 20 odd thousand. The stadium was full and again live on TV. It was fantastic.

“The big break for me then was I was selected for the World Cup in France the following year in 2014. I was actually selected to do the opening game for the home country which was France against Wales.

“They mightn’t seem much, but they’re little political appointments. There was a panel of eight referees and I think six touch judges and you kind of get a feel for the pecking order when you start to see those appointments.

“I did two pool matches after that and then the semi final- France against Canada.

“France lost and there was a big incident involving the TMO and it was around the time of tip tackles where a player is lifted up and driven into the ground. That was kind of one talking point in the game.

“But again I just had to stick to my process and that was probably the only incident that came out of the game.

“There’s a lot of pressure big time. You’re in a French hotel, your driver is French, everybody around you is French, the head of World Rugby Elite Referees at the time was French.

“You know very much that you’re in the home country. Does it influence you? Not a hope in hell!

“After that, people were starting to talk in rugby circles and ask ‘Why aren’t you on the National Panel? What’s going on here?’

“But for me, even at that point, I was thinking ‘That’s a step too far. They’re not going to do it.’

“It was my own referee coach, Dave O’Brien who worked in the IRFU, was going ‘Listen, this isn’t good enough. I’m seeing lads getting ahead of you who haven’t got the experience or are doing the games you’re doing.’

“So I was called in by Dave McHugh. He was head of the referees and was saying they were thinking of putting me on IPAS, which is like an assessment process before you get on to the National Panel.

“I think there was pressure to put me on it, but at the same time it felt like I was still trying to be dissuaded.

“I had a think about it and I spoke to a couple of people in rugby referees circles and they were saying ‘No, go back and say I do want to do it [IPAS]. I’m not happy with my lot and I want a chance of doing it.’

“So I picked up the phone to him the following day and I said ‘No, I want to give it a bash.’

“So that involved going to all the different provinces, refereeing all men’s games and being assessed independently by the assessors in their province.

“I went on and I did it and I got the highest score of any referee in an IPAS programme so they couldn’t ignore me after that.

“Being the first female to get on the National Panel got more headlines than any of the women’s internationals at the World Cup. My phone didn’t stop ringing.

“It was announced around December that I had made the National Panel and I wasn’t going to be refereeing my first game until January, but I was getting calls from BBC, from Sky News, I was getting calls from reporters everywhere even as far as Australia. It went absolutely everywhere that this was after happening.

“My first [Men’s AIL] game was down in Musgrave Park in Cork. It was Sundays Well versus Kanturk in the All-Ireland League.

“It was different from my first international where I was just so nervous. I had gained a good bit of experience by then in those two years by getting the big games.

“I felt, it went well and I have to say, the support I got down there was great.

“For the first time ever, there’s a female walking into the dressing room of the lads in the All-Ireland League, but they were fantastic.

“I remember them all saying ‘Listen, we’re delighted we’re part of a little bit of history, because everybody’s looking at our club and this game.’

“After the game, they gave me a piece of crystal, the lads themselves, that they got engraved with the date and the fixture on it and that I was the first female to referee it.

“I just thought it was a really nice touch and, I often say that is something I treasure most out of everything I’ve got.

“At that point then I’m thrown into a season of All-Ireland League and I’m going around the country refereeing in all different types of games.

“While it wasn’t a first for me by then, it was a first for all the clubs. There’s a little bit of curiosity.

“Sometimes you’re getting out of the car and someone says ‘Are you the physio? There’s the changing room over there’. I’m liked, ‘No I’m the referee.’ And it’s like ‘Oh, alright’. They’re not sure what to say.

“Then there’s a big flap about the dressing rooms. This happened quite a lot, where they’re coming in saying ‘Listen, we’ve put a lock on the door especially’.

“I’m like, ‘I’m just putting on a pair of shorts and a jersey and I’ll throw the touch judges outside when I need to take a shower after the game and we’ll be grand.’

“But look, they’re not doing it out of badness. It’s just new for everybody, but for me, I’m saying ‘Please don’t cause a fuss. Leave me to it. If I need something I’ll give you a shout.’

“I was the guts of six years on the National Panel. I went on to go into the Pro 14, or Pro 12 as it was at the time. I was the first female to touch judge at that.

“Again more exposure. Then you’re starting to see a female on the touchline in men’s rugby at Pro 12. You notice the camera is focusing in on you a little bit and you’re conscious of that.

“I’ve seen a couple more females since then have gone in to refereeing and the camera would barely even notice that they’re on the touchline. It’s not a novelty anymore and I think, as female referees, that’s what we’ve always wanted.

“I know Joy Neville has come into refereeing after me. People get used to seeing it and you stop becoming the female referee. And I think that’s when you realise, right we’ve got to the next stage.

“My first match in the PRO 12 was down in Munster. Again that was a first for the lads. They had a female walking into the dressing room and I think it was Zebre who they were playing.

“But I have always found the players don’t bat an eyelid. All the player wants is consistency, a bit of empathy and the game. In fairness they couldn’t give a damn who’s blowing the whistle.

“I went on to do a European Challenge game after that back over to France.

“For me I was getting the appointments that a referee that’s proven themselves at this level should be getting.

“I retired last year then. I was supposed to do my 25th international and retire after that, but it was the time of the bad snow there in 2019 over in Scotland and the match was called off.

“It was a friendly, a pre-Six Nations. That was meant to be my swansong, but this blizzard came in. I checked the pitch and I’d say about 30 minutes before kick-off I went back out and there was about four inches of snow and this blizzard and the snow ploughs couldn’t even get it off the pitch. I was like ‘No we’ll make a call on this.’

“It was a shock to the system retiring. Nearly my whole adult life had been rugby. I was very sad retiring, but it was the right time for me.

“I was comfortable with what I had done. Was I going to achieve anything more? Probably not.

“I felt in the right place. I wasn’t dropped, so you go out on your own terms. It just was the right time for me.

“But I got a call last year from the ARLB and they said ‘Listen, how do you fancy another first?’ They said ‘We’re looking for you to be President of the organisation.’

“That’s going to happen in two years. Next year the President is going to be Gordon Condell, a Clondalkin man, and the Vice President is going to be myself, a Clondalkin woman, so for two people who have grown up in the area and who will have that next year, I feel quite proud of that.”

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