Naas graduate Campbell ready to shine at World Cup

There are a lot of people who have helped her along the way to becoming a bona fide member of a World Cup squad, but there is one person in particular who played a big part in the career trajectory of Johnstown’s Ruth Campbell.

Originally from New Zealand, Tania Rosser moved to Ireland all the way back in 2000 and went on to feature on 58 occasions for her adopted nation. She has also established herself on the coaching circuit and enjoyed significant stints at the helm of the Leinster and Old Belvedere women’s teams in recent seasons.

Given she is affiliated to both of these sides, Campbell is very familiar with Rosser and at a media day that was held in the IRFU High Performance Centre last Thursday prior to the squad’s departure for the World Cup in England, she explained the important role she had in Campbell progressing up the women’s rugby ladder.

“Tania was actually a milestone in me coming up to [Ireland] U20s. I remember coming onto the Leinster squad, I hadn’t been involved in the previous year because I was doing my Leaving Cert and I didn’t get out to trials. That was that,” Campbell explained.

“I had flights booked to Australia, so I was going to move over there and then I made the Leinster squad. I said ‘alright, I’ll stick around’. Then Tania put me forward, showed some clips to the U20s set-up.

“Someone got injured in there, so I got my opportunity from that and then from that I got selected to go over to Dubai. When it rained it poured, it kind of all happened at once. You can’t help but give a shout out to Tania for that, for that opportunity.” 

The Dubai selection that Campbell refers to was Ireland’s successful campaign at the inaugural WXV 3 tournament in October 2023.

Three consecutive victories at the expense of Kazakhstan, Colombia and Spain ensured Ireland secured this third-tier crown, but despite five of the squad making their international bows over the course of the tournament, Campbell had to wait a little longer for her Ireland senior debut.

She was also named in a 35-strong squad for the Six Nations in 2024 and was a travelling reserve as Ireland secured qualification for the World Cup with a final round triumph over Scotland in Belfast on April 27 of that year. This had her on the brink of an international breakthrough and she finally got the chance to don the green jersey at the highest level when Ireland returned to Belfast for a 150th anniversary encounter against Australia last September.

This was a special moment for Campbell and she made the most of it by playing the full 80 minutes at second row in a 36-10 success.

“It was amazing and to do it for the 150th anniversary against Australia. To get a win on top of that, it was definitely an amazing time. We’re coming up on one year, the 14th of September, so we’re nearly at one year now next month. It’s an exciting time,” Campbell recalled of her test debut.

While she has lined out for both Old Belvedere and MU Barnhall in more recent times, Campbell’s rugby journey started a little closer to home at Naas RFC.

“I started there at around four or five years old. I used to go down to the club to watch my brothers train and I was annoying my Dad on the sideline. One of the days he just told me to get in there, stop annoying him. I haven’t looked back since.” When you consider that the girls’ section of the club was only established as recently as 2010 – and their first senior women’s team didn’t get up and running until eight years later – Naas will undoubtedly have a sense of pride in seeing someone who came through their ranks being in an Ireland squad for the World Cup.

When it comes to the progress girls and women’s rugby has made in Naas RFC, Campbell believes that Dave McKeown (the club’s current Chair of Women’s Rugby) deserves enormous credit.

“He was great for the women’s game there. He has three daughters and they all played at some point. Naas has done so much for me and obviously my parents keeping me in it. There was a time when I was too old for the lads and too young for the U16s. I went off and tried a few different sports, but I always came back to it. It was amazing.” A former student of King’s Hospital in Dublin who also attended the Leinster Senior College in Newbridge towards the end of her school days, Campbell has now accumulated eight caps with the Ireland women’s team.

She will be hoping to gain further opportunities over the course of the 2025 World Cup, which begins for Ireland with a Pool C encounter against Japan this coming Sunday and is followed by subsequent showdowns with Spain (August 31) and New Zealand (September 7).

The latter fixture takes place at Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium and Campbell revealed that some of Naas’ contingent are set to make their presence felt on the day.

“You look out for them on the telly, they’re all going over dressed as bananas for the Brighton game!” 

Given a top-two finish in their pool will secure them a spot at the quarter-final stage of the tournament, you might be forgiven for thinking this would be a goal at the very least for Ireland over the next few weeks.

However, as Campbell outlines, delivering high levels of performance will be the main priority for the Ireland squad on their return to the World Cup after an eight-year absence.

“I think our target is to perform and do our very best. If we do our very best and there’s nothing left to put out there, then we’ve done our job. I think our goal is just to leave it all out there and come back with no regrets,” Campbell added.