In 1887, Emily Valentine became the first female ever recorded to play rugby and score a try during a match at Portora Royal School, in Enniskillen. She was only 10 years old at the time, and was asked to play alongside her brothers as the team were a man down. Delighted at her achievement, Valentine wrote a detailed description of her experience in her journal.
'I can still feel the damp leather and the smell of the ball, and see the tag of lacing at the opening,' she wrote, 'I grasped it and ran dodging and darting, but I was so keen to score that try that I did not pass it, perhaps when I should. I still raced on, I could see the boy coming toward me. I dodged,…
