Ballina RFC is buzzing today as news spreads that our own Clara Barrett has been selected for the extended Ireland Under-18 Women’s Sevens squad.
The 22 selected players will commence preparations for the Rugby Europe U-18 Women’s Sevens Championship in Prague on July 23-24.
We're so very proud of Clara and her selection is another huge boost for female rugby in Heffernan Park as our President, Deirdre Whyte explained.
"Clara is so deserving of this. She's a brilliant rugby player but more importantly, she's a brilliant young woman. To see the progress she has made since she arrived here as a little girl is phenomenal. She has come through all the grades here and enjoyed every minute of it. She always seems to have a smile on her face and to say we're delighted for her is an understatement.
"Girls and Women's rugby is very close to my heart and the progress we're making here in the club is amazing. We have girls consistently selected for Connacht and now Ireland and I can't even imagine the brilliant adventures the future holds for female rugby here in Heffernan Park.
"Congratulations to Clara and her family from everyone here and all our members across the world. We're very proud."

The extended Irish squad will take part in two weekend camps at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre in Dublin on the weekends of June 18-19 and 25-26.
A reduced squad will then travel to France for a two day camp at Marcoussis (July 2-3), the FFR’s training facility, where they will train against their French counterparts.
There will be two further one-day camps on July 10 and 17 before the squad is finalised to travel to Prague for the Rugby Europe Championship.
The countries competing in the Rugby Europe U-18 Sevens Championship are France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Ukraine.