Growing up, Eve Higgins’ Six Nations tradition was a trip to Ashbourne to watch the women’s game on a Friday before heading to Aviva Stadium for the men on a Saturday with her father.
While the crowds flocked to Dublin 4 for the men, attendances at the County Meath venue the previous evening weren’t hitting the same heights.
But just as women’s rugby in Ireland grew in stature, so too did the ‘Green Wave’ of support and this Sunday represents a significant milestone as for the first time, the Lansdowne Road venue will host a stand-alone women’s game.
Back in 2014, a women’s Six Nations game against Italy served as a curtain-raiser for the male equivalent, but with 28,000 tickets sold for this weekend’s final round against Scotland [14:30 BST] so far, it has already tripled the record 9,206 fans who took in Ireland’s opening home Six Nations game against Italy in April at Galway’s Dexcom Stadium.
It’s very much part of a trend with interest in the women’s game growing rapidly and Ireland’s opening game against England in this year’s championship drew a record 77,120 to Twickenham’s Aviva Stadium.
Higgins describes the prospect of playing in front of a record home crowd as “extremely special” but hopes it is “the first of many”.
“When we heard, firstly, that there was 20,000 tickets sold, that was huge because we knew we were obviously beating our record crowd,” the 26-year-old centre told BBC Sport NI.
“Even the fact that we’ve beaten a record crowd in this Six Nations, but to do it again by three will be extremely special.
“We spoke about this three or four years ago that we wanted to have games in the Aviva, but we wanted to do it at a time that we could fill the stadium as we didn’t want to play in empty stadiums.
“The fact that our first occasion in this stadium will be in front of a record crowd of 28,000-plus people is brilliant and it shows you what performances can do. We just want to put on a show for the crowd this weekend.”
