Eve Higgins reflects on her journey in women's rugby, sharing how her Six Nations tradition involved watching the women's game in Ashbourne before heading to Aviva Stadium for the men's match. While the men's events attracted large crowds, the women's games struggled to draw similar numbers.

This Sunday marks a pivotal moment as Aviva Stadium hosts its first stand-alone women's game, showcasing the growing support for women's rugby in Ireland. Previously, in 2014, a women's game against Italy served as a curtain-raiser, but this time, the anticipation is palpable with over 28,000 tickets sold for the final round against Scotland at 14:30 BST. This figure has already surpassed the previous record of 9,206 fans at Galway's Dexcom Stadium during Ireland's opening home match against Italy in April.

The surge in interest is evident, with Ireland's opening game against England attracting a record 77,120 fans at Twickenham's Aviva Stadium earlier this year. Higgins describes playing in front of such a large crowd as "extremely special" and hopes for more events like this in the future.

She expressed excitement over the ticket sales, stating, "When we heard, firstly, that there was 20,000 tickets sold, that was huge because we knew we were obviously beating our record crowd." Higgins emphasized the importance of filling the stadium, noting, "We wanted to do it at a time that we could fill the stadium as we didn't want to play in empty stadiums."

With this historic match on the horizon, Higgins and her team are eager to deliver an unforgettable performance for the crowd, highlighting the significant progress women’s rugby has made in Ireland.