A year without rugby - Aoibheann Reilly primed for new season with Connacht

After a year out of the game, Aoibheann Reilly is just happy to be back playing rugby.

The dual-code Connacht scrum-half suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the summer of 2022, and has just returned to the game ahead of the upcoming Interpros, which kick off the new season on Saturday.

Back training since June, Reilly returned to the game in Hamburg last month at the European Sevens, and is now embedded in 15s pre-season work with Connacht ahead of their opening encounter with Leinster.

"It happened just stepping, catching a high ball and stepping on landing, a classic non-contact injury," said Reilly, regarding her injury. "It happens, and I'm lucky, I’m still young and have lots to learn and, hopefully, have still lots to give and I’m delighted to be back for the start of this season, it’s a great time to get back.

"I didn’t want to rush back because I know with ACLs you can often ruin the recovery by coming back too early so I pretty much set out to come back in a year’s time."

Putting the last year behind her, Reilly is now looking forward to the next 12 months and is hoping to catch the eye of incoming Ireland coach Scott Bemand, with the inaugural WXV series coming up in Dubai later this year.

And then there is also the possibility of representing Ireland at next summer’s Olympic Games, in the Sevens format.

Reilly admits that it was hard to watch on from the sidelines last May as her team-mates secured safe passage to the Paris Games, however, she was delighted to see her team achieve the goal of qualification for the very first time.

"It was great to see the girls qualify, that’s all that matters," said Reilly.

"I’m glad now that I’m back for the year that matters. Even watching the Six Nations I had serious FOMO, I