| Date of birth | 25 March 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place of birth | Pretoria, South Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Butcher | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ilse van Staden (born 25 March 1983) [1] is a South African-born Ireland women's rugby union player born in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. [2]
She plays for Cooke WRFC, Ulster Rugby and the Ireland women's national rugby union team as a front row player and is a qualified chef and butcher. [2]
Van Staden started playing rugby for Correction Services Rugby Club in Pretoria, before she moved to Pretoria Harlequins. She also lined out for the University of Pretoria(TUKS) where she represented them in both 15s and 7s. During her time at Tuks she played various international 7s tournaments including Dubai, Reunion, Hong Kong and Rome.
She played provincial rugby for the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, where she made 109 appearances for them. [3]
In 2011, she moved to Northern Ireland as part of a talent exchange programme where she started playing for Belfast Harlequins Ladies Rugby before moving to Cooke WRFC in 2013, [3] eventually becoming their captain. [4]
She made her provincial debut for Ulster in 2012 after being called up alongside fellow Ulster player Claire McLaughlin. [3] [5]
When van Staden became eligible to represent Ireland though residency, she aimed for a call-up to the Ireland national team. [3] In 2017, she made her debut in the Women's Six Nations Championship against the Scotland women's national rugby union team. [6]
Later that year, she was not initially selected for Ireland's 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup campaign. However, due to an injury to prop Ruth O'Reilly, van Staden was called up as her replacement and played twice in the tournament. [7] [1]
Van Staden works as a butcher at a farm in Straid, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. [8] [2] While working at the farm, she helped to pioneer the production of South African biltong in Northern Ireland. [9] She lives in Belfast. [8]
Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won once. Ulster were the first Irish team and the first team outside England and France to win the European Cup in 1999.
Rugby union is a popular team sport on the island of Ireland, organised on an all-Ireland basis, including players and teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Its governing body, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), was founded in 1875, making it the third oldest rugby union in the world after the RFU (England) and the SRU (Scotland), which were both founded in 1871.
Belfast Harlequins is a multi-sports club located off the Malone Road in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club name provides the overall umbrella for rugby union, men's and ladies' hockey, and squash. The club is associated on and off the field with Methodist College Belfast (MCB).
The Ulster Senior League, currently known as the Ulster Rugby Premiership, is a rugby union competition for senior clubs in the Irish province of Ulster. It was formed by the then Northern Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union in October 1890. It has traditionally being ranked second in importance to the Ulster Senior Cup. It has declined in importance due to the formation of the All-Ireland League and growth in importance of the Heineken Cup.
Declan Fitzpatrick is an Irish former rugby union player. He played for Ulster from 2006 to 2015, and won seven caps for Ireland.
Cooke Rugby Football Club, which was founded in 1910, is the oldest junior rugby club in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They currently field 3 Senior Men's teams, the 1st XV playing in Qualifying 1, and a successful Women's team, which competes in the Women's All-Ireland League.
Collegians was a sports club for former pupils of Methodist College Belfast. In the 109-year history of the club, it had rugby union, cricket, hockey, basketball, and athletics sections. The cricket section merged with Cooke Cricket Club in 1998 to form Cooke Collegians, and the remainder of the club is now called Belfast Harlequins after a merger with the North of Ireland Football Club in 1999.
Watching and playing sports is an important part of culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland where almost six out of ten (59%) of the adult population regularly participate in one or more sports. Belfast has several notable sports teams playing a diverse variety of sports including football, rugby, traditional Irish Gaelic games, and North American sports such as American football and ice hockey (at the SSE Arena where the multiple time Elite Ice Hockey League champion Belfast Giants are based. The Belfast Marathon is run annually on May Day, and attracted 14,300 participants in 2007. Cycling, triathlon and athletics are also popular as both participation and spectator sports, with the first two stages of the 2014 Giro d'Italia starting from Belfast City Centre, and the annual high profile Belfast International Cross Country event being held in the grounds of Stormont Castle every year until 2009. The Stormont Estate is also one of the four home grounds for the Ireland cricket team, alongside Bready, Malahide and Clontarf, and also hosts the Northern Cricket Union provincial teams.
Paddy McAllister is an Irish rugby union player and coach who played professionally as a prop for Ulster, Aurillac, Gloucester and Connacht.
Belfast Harlequins Ladies Rugby is a rugby union team based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The team is part of the multi-sport organization, Belfast Harlequins.
Ricky Lutton from Belfast is a rugby union player, who formerly played prop for Ulster.
Ashleigh Orchard is an Irish female rugby union player and coach. She has made 87 appearances for Ireland Sevens in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, and represented Ireland at the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014 and 2017.
Mary Dixey is an American former rugby union player. She was a member of the United States squad that won the inaugural 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup defeating England 19-6 in the final. She played at the Flyhalf position for the Women's Eagles. Her Eagle appearances include matches against The Netherlands, Wales (co-captain), Canada, Japan, and Ireland. She scored a try as an Eagle in the United States v. Ireland quarter-final match in the 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2017, she was inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame as a member of the 1991 Rugby World Cup team. Dixey's club is Beantown RFC. She received Club Nationals MVP selection twice. Dixey also played 15s and 7s with Hartford Wild Rose and founded Hello My Name is Mary 7s who played exclusively at the Cape Cod 7s Tournament. Dixey was part of the coaching staff of Radcliffe Rugby at Harvard University from 1993 to 2001, including the 1998 National Championship campaign, and Yale WRFC from 2002-2006. In governance service, Dixey sat on the USA Rugby BOD as a director, the Management Committee as an International Athlete Vice President with oversight of national teams, and she chaired the Eligibility Committee.
Claire Small is a women's rugby union player from Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and a qualified doctor. She plays for Ulster Rugby and the Ireland women's national rugby union team as a back row, having previously played in the centre.
Sene Naoupu is an Ireland women's rugby union international. Naoupu was a member of the Ireland team that won the 2015 Women's Six Nations Championship. She also represented Ireland at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. She is also an Ireland women's rugby sevens international. Naoupu is a Samoan New Zealander who originally emigrated to Ireland in 2009 with her former husband, George Naoupu, the former Highlanders, Harlequins and Connacht rugby union player. Naoupu is also a lifestyle coach and fitness trainer and operates her own business, Senshaper. In 2016, Naoupu was listed by The Irish Times as one of the thirty most influential women in Ireland.
The 2021–22 season was Ulster Rugby's 28th season since the advent of professionalism in rugby union, and Dan McFarland's fourth season as head coach. They competed in the inaugural United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup.
The 2019–20 season was Ulster's 26th season since the advent of professionalism in rugby union, and Dan McFarland's second season as head coach. Lock Iain Henderson was named captain in place of retired hooker Rory Best. They competed in the Pro14 and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Both competitions were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, he later stages being played in August, September and October 2020. In the Pro14, Ulster finished second in Conference A, making the playoffs and qualifying for next season's Champions Cup. They beat Edinburgh in the semi-final, but lost to Leinster in the final. They finished second in Pool 3 in the Champions Cup, qualifying for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by Toulouse.
The 2018–19 season was Ulster's 25th season since the advent of professionalism in rugby union, and Dan McFarland's first season as head coach. Rory Best was captain. They competed in the Pro14, making the semi-finals, and the European Rugby Champions Cup, making the quarter-finals.
The 2017–18 season was Ulster's 24th season since the advent of professionalism in rugby union, and Jono Gibbes' only season as head coach. Rory Best was captain. They competed in the inaugural Pro14 and the European Rugby Champions Cup.
The 2016–17 season was Ulster's 23rd season since the advent of professionalism in rugby union, and the third under Director of Rugby Les Kiss and head coach Neil Doak. They completed in the European Rugby Champions Cup and the final season of the Pro12 before it became the Pro14 with the addition of two teams from South Africa.
