Tiare Siguenza: 'I’m happy to be playing regularly against such good teams all around the country'
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The Energia Women’s All Ireland League gets underway on Saturday with a 10-team division for the first time since before covid. The addition of Tullow to the ranks heralds a new chapter for the women’s club game and Ballincollig’s breakthrough campaign last time around should give the Carlow club plenty of encouragement of the strides that can be made.
The Cork club reached a high of five victories in their third season as a senior club in 2023-24 and speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ballincollig player Tiare Siguenza sees no reason why the Tanner Park team should not push on further this time around, starting at Galwegians on Saturday afternoon.
“We were targeting fifth place last season and thought it was a fair position for us but we ended up falling into sixth, a bit short there at the end but we were quite happy with that and we’re hoping to replicate something similar this season, push forward and stay ambitious.
Outlining the mood in the camp on the eve of the season, Siguenza added: “Pretty good, a new season, fresh vibes, a few players coming up from the 18s, everybody’s been really good so far.
“We’ve had some team-building, went to an MMA club near Cork. There were lots of transferable skills, learning how to fall, for instance, and we also did a few chokeholds which was fun, it was a good laugh. It’s good because it’s about mixing sport and a good mindset. Things have started nicely.”
A French-American, Siguenza has traveled the world playing rugby in the last decade, playing in the French Top 8 with Montpellier, and in China for the Guangzhou Rams, in Beijing and also a Hong Kong team.
Ireland was an unintended stop-off, until covid struck and she found herself a grounded backpacker in Castletownbere when borders were closed and lockdowns imposed in early 2022.
“I’ve been playing for about 10 years now. I’m originally French-American and a few other things but I’ve been in Ireland for about four years now and this is my third season with Ballincollig.
“I started rugby quite late, through an ex-boyfriend. I’m 33 now, so I started when I was doing my masters in uni. I got late to the game.
“I was living in Asia and then covid hit and I was happy to get back to Europe and was backpacking in Ireland for two weeks when the announcement came that all the borders were shut.
“It was never the plan but it was so beautiful and probably the best place to spend lockdown and I was very happy with it. It was a very good move.”
Siguenza arrived at Ballincollig via Bantry Bay RFC and has enjoyed club life and the standard of AIL rugby during those three seasons.
“It’s really nice to be able to be in this type of structure. We had the Top 8 in France with Montpellier and I did do a lot of comparison and try to find the similarities and whatnot. There’s definitely some similarities but I’m happy to be playing regularly against such good teams all around the country, it’s quite a privilege.”
So too is the Ballincollig women’s status as the senior team at the club.
“You could think it could be a bone of contention but the men have been so supportive and it’s been really good having the club behind us. We put a tag team together over the summer with the men’s and women’s and it was great craic all around.
“It hasn’t been an issue at all and I think actually it’s lifted the men’s team too to some extent. We have a really good S&C coach called Diarmuid Hayes in partnership with Setanta College and us having those resources gives the men the same access so we’re hoping they’ll do very well this season and we’ll be supporting them the same and hopefully we’ll both get there.
“We’re hoping to replicate something similar to what we did last season and push it even further. We have a very good coaching staff driving us on, Helen Brosnan is still our head coach and we’re very lucky to have Laura Guest, Leah Lyons and Mike Pettmann and having all that support, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to plough through, keep going and actually be very proud of ourselves and our results by the end of the season.”