Niamh Briggs, the Waterford native who is a Garda in Limerick, is the captain of the Irish rugby team, a key member of the 2013 Grand Slam winning side, before leading the team to last season's Six Nations success. The fullback and prolific place-kicker is trying to keep her focus on the 2016 Six Nations campaign, but it's hard not letting thoughts drift to the 2017 World Cup which, of course, Ireland will host.

In this weather, do you regret not choosing an indoor sport?

Well, definitely when we were training in the middle of Storm Barney. Unreal. Something indoors and warm would have been nice alright. Swimming. Tiddlywinks. Anything, really.

What’s the current training schedule?

We’re full on at the moment. Monday is usually a recovery day; Tuesday morning is weights and speed; Tuesday evening is a conditioning session, running or whatever; Wednesday night is club training; Thursday morning is weights again; Thursday evening is conditioning of some sort; Friday morning is a speed, conditioning session; Saturday we have off at the moment; club matches Sunday. And you try to fit in skills on top of that.

And a job?

True! It is full on, but I prefer that, I like to keep going – I’m not very good at being idle.

There’ve been a lot of retirements and lots of new faces in the squad in the last year or two, it’s been a dramatic turnover – has the transition been difficult?

It hasn't really, it's actually been great. With new players comes new enthusiasm and the new girls coming in are so confident I absolutely love it. They have complete faith in their ability, they don't doubt each other and they don't doubt themselves. A lot of them, like Lindsay Peat [/Gaelic football/basketball/soccer] and Jeamie Deacon [hockey] have come from other sports, but what they lack in rugby experience they make up for in their team experience. They're used to being in the high performance, high intensity environment of a team structure, they understand it, they buy in to the values really, really quickly.

We need to have 30, 35 top international players in the squad to create competition and, looking forward, we’re going to need as strong as possible a panel for the World Cup in 2017. In years gone by it would have been a little more difficult to bed in so many new players, because we had so little time together, but in fairness to the IRFU, and with [head coach] Tom [Tierney] gone full-time, we’ve had a camp at least once a month since August, so that’s been really good for us.

After those two Six Nations titles in three years, you’ve had to live with the tag of role models and pioneers. What’s that experience been like?

Well, we just want to go out and win rugby matches, we just want to leave the jersey in a better place than where we found it. We had a club game on Sunday and there was an under-12 girls team training on the pitch beside us and afterwards they were coming over, all excited, asking if they could they play with us. Growing up I would have been a big admirer of Sonia O’Sullivan and the Waterford ladies’ Gaelic football team, so I’m blown away to be seen in a similar way by those under-12s. It’s amazing for us to be in that position, it’s a role that we cherish.

Do you feel Irish women’s rugby has made sufficient progress in the last few years on the back of the team’s success?

If you compare it to where we were three or five years ago there’s absolutely no comparison, it’s definitely going in the right direction, but there’s more to be done. We need better coaching, we need more clubs, we need more underage structures. There’s some great work being done in Munster, for example, taking the game to ‘non-rugby’ places like Listowel and Abbeyfeale, but it’s been slower to spread to the cities, so we’re still a good way off what, say, England has.

In fairness to Nora (Stapleton, Women’s And Girls Development Executive for the IRFU) the structures she’s putting in place will have the game in good stead for years to come, but it’s definitely a long process, not an overnight one. Our club game is going from strength to strength, but it’s not where it needs to be yet.

We definitely need more young girls playing, we need an under-18s and under-20s structure, at the moment they have no league so they’re not getting games having been training all year. And you train to play games. Still, you can’t rush these things, you need to put in solid foundations that will last forever.

Having had Six Nations success, is winning the only target now?

I’m very competitive, I hate to lose more than I enjoy winning. But then you take off your unrealistic hat and you think about heading in to the Six Nations with so many new caps, and also playing England and France away – and we’ve never won away to either of them. So, reality sets in a little bit.

But I believe 100 per cent, if we play to the best of our ability, new caps and all, there isn’t any country in the world that can beat us. We really want to retain our Six Nations title, if we can do that we’ll put Irish women’s rugby in a really good place going in to 2017.

You’ve had some very special moments the last few years, is there one that stands out, that keeps you going on those Storm Barney training nights?

The first Grand Slam was unbelievable for us because it created history. The first win over England, at Ashbourne, was incredible. They’re days that you hold on to. But every single occasion that I get to stand there and listen to the national anthem is one that I cherish.