Queen’s star Diane Ramsey loving rugby life

Ramsey has won five caps for her province and scored one try.

“I did a six week programme at my school Dalriada, that was the height of it, I just played hockey throughout school, I really only took up rugby when I came to Queen’s,” explained Ramsey.

“I worked in Ballymoney Rugby Club behind the bar and there was one match my bar manager begged me to come on to the pitch to stand there and make up the numbers so they had enough to field a team.”

“I didn’t really do anything in the that match but I just had an inkling that I maybe wanted to try rugby. When I went to Queen’s I was walking around the Freshers fair and Jemma Jackson (Ulster player) approached me and I signed up.”

“I was playing hockey and rugby but the training was on the same nights and I ended up playing rugby because there seemed to be a nicer atmosphere about it and I struck with it.

“I had no hand to eye co-ordination when I first started out, I was terrible at that, I guess the fitness side of it was quite good, you could use your big strong legs from hockey and that helped going into the contact side of things.”

Ramsey enjoyed her rugby so much at the Dub she still plays for Queen’s even after graduating and would advise any girls wanting to take up the game to play at the university.

“I don’t think you would get quite the same experiences at another club especially as your living with all the other girls and you are really close to them,” she said.

“You just land around at each other’s houses after nights out or go for breakfast and do stuff together, that was second to none and I kind of miss that now being a graduate, looking at people stories on Snapchat and I’m like missing out on all the ‘craic’.

“I can’t recommend it enough and it doesn’t matter if they have any experience of playing rugby or not, sometimes we get girls that played tag rugby at school and no contact.

“We usually run a six week Give IT A Try programme at the start of the season for girls who are new to the sport, you start from the basics and you are taught really well until you are confident in what you are doing.

“All my friends are people I met through rugby at Queen’s, it is a great opportunity to get to meet so many people from so many different backgrounds from across Northern Ireland and further afield.

“We train Monday and Wednesday 7.00-8.30pm at the Dub.

“Women’s is really taking off and there are more clubs popping up over Ulster which is really good as well and just more people getting involved and we have got the second team now at Queen’s as well because our numbers keep growing year on year which is brilliant.”

Queen’s dropped out of the All Ireland league at the end of Ramsey’s first season but she is hoping the club can get back there.

“That is an ambition, we were unlucky last year that the league got called off because we were sitting top of the Ulster Premiership, which we had just got into which could have potentially put us into the AIL playoffs, but with season cut short that was all pushed back,” she said.

“It is great that we get to play in the community series now in the run up to Christmas and we get to test ourselves against the likes of Malone and Cooke to see where we stand and that will let us gauge where we are at and what we need to work on for next season or the season after.

“Our first match is Sunday week against City of Derry at home and I can’t wait to get back playing.”

Ramsey is hoping a successful year for Queen’s will help more of the squad earn provincial honours.

She said: “The first year I was involved in the Ulster set up I was one of the very few girls that wasn’t from Cooke or Malone so that was quite difficult, last year there was about eight of us involved from Queen’s, Shannon Buller and myself made the final squad so even just having one other person there from Queen’s to experience that with me was really lovely.”