Longford's Áine Matthews to take part in Vodafone rugby promotion

To celebrate this, Vodafone created a unique rugby ball with a grip containing the fingerprints of 32 different people from every county in Ireland, people of all different ages, backgrounds and careers, symbolising our connection to each other and to Irish rugby.

Representing Longford on the rugby ball is Áine Matthews.

Áine heard about this campaign through a friend and jumped at the opportunity. Although she has only been playing for two years, rugby is very important to Áine.

Before moving to Dublin, Áine had played Gaelic football for most of her life. Being from Mullinalaghta it’s almost a way of life.

She has since quit football and now focuses more on work and rugby. At first, she started playing tag rugby with a club called CYM, Terenure.

They are a small club with four teams catering for both experienced and developing men and women. They hold tag rugby tournaments during the summer, and then try to recruit new rugby players for the winter, one of which being Áine.

Outside of rugby Áine is a medical physicist and works in Beaumont Hospital. When asked what she feels is her place in the world, Áine replied, “I work in healthcare and I feel my place in the world is something to do with somehow helping others.”

Although most of us will not be joining the Irish team in Tokyo, I am sure the majority of us will be supporting our team in the World Cup from home.

We are all well aware of the influence our island has on not only the rugby world but on the world in general.

This Vodafone campaign ensures that whoever we may be, we all have a place in Ireland.