Former Ireland prop Lindsay Peat has told BBC Sport NI’s Ireland Rugby Social podcast that she found the transition to playing rugby union difficult after previously excelling at other sports.
Peat only took up rugby at 35 years of age, having played for the Republic of Ireland under-18 football team, captained the Ireland women’s national basketball team and played senior Ladies’ Gaelic football for Dublin.
She was a member of the Dublin team that won the All-Ireland title in 2010 and scored two goals in the 2014 final.
Within months of taking up women’s rugby, Peat was fast-tracked into the Ireland team by then coach Tom Tierney and made her international debut in November 2015 when she came on as a replacement in an 8-3 defeat by England in an autumn fixture. It was just the eighth game of rugby she had ever played.
She went on to play for Ireland in every Women’s Six Nations from 2016 to 2021 and was part of the team which hosted the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Peat won 38 caps before retiring from international duty when she was 41.
“It was such a regret that I didn’t start rugby earlier but at the same time, before that, I had fabulous memories with basketball and GAA,” explained Peat.
“Tom [Tierney] said he’d like to invite me to camp and it was after that first Six Nations, when I had not a clue what I was doing, that Tom said, ‘I threw you in at the deep end there’ and I was like, ‘yeah, you did’.
“I was coming into a team that had won Grand Slams and been to a semi-final [of a World Cup against England], but it was them who motivated me.
“I had to make so many mistakes with egg on my face. It was tough but they had standards and I had come in and if I was going to take the jersey I understood that.”
Peat now coaches at Railway Union Rugby Club and says she draws on her own experiences to help develop the young players she is helping to develop.
“I had to make mistakes to learn, it was tough learnings. I’m all for the arm round the shoulder but if we’re not honest in our feedback then how do we have the growth mindset?
“I say to the girls, ‘make mistakes, I’d rather you make a mistake trying rather than not make a mistake not trying at all because you’re so scared’.
“The female game, no matter what sport we’re talking about, women are getting exposed to a lot better coaching and early exposure at underage, so their skill set is through the roof.”
