Erin King's rise has happened faster than most international rugby careers unfold. A sevens contract, a breakout switch to 15s, an injury that forced her to slow down, and then — a conversation with head coach Scott Bemand that made her Ireland Women's captain.
Reflecting on the pace of it all, King admits she has barely had time to process.
"Definitely. I think um sometimes everything's moving so quick. You you kind of you don't really know like you know you can't really have a minute to think about it," she said. "But I think the past year um with my injury, you know, I've I've really got to reflect and get a new perspective on everything."
The injury, she says, forced a pause she hadn't allowed herself since she turned professional — and gave her the distance to understand what captaining Ireland would actually mean.
Scott Bemand's decision to hand her the armband was not one she took for granted.
"So no, I'm really grateful. And um when Scott asked me to be captain, I definitely took a moment and thought about everyone who was kind of impacted my career and um yeah, it's been a great journey."
King is quick to stress that the years she spent in Ireland's sevens programme are what made her ready for it. Sevens asks more of a young player than almost any setting in rugby — more minutes, more decisions on the ball, more exposure to elite opposition.
"Obviously, like you said, starting with Nace, all them coaches who brought me up until I got my sevens contract and then them years in sevens, I'm really grateful for because I learned so much and you know, got so much experience on the international stage."
That experience — played in front of international crowds, under a national jersey, from a young age — is widely recognised as one of the reasons Ireland Women's programme has accelerated. It's also the kind of acknowledgement rarely made publicly by senior national-side players.
King's gratitude extended to every coach and mentor along the way.
"So, everyone who's helped me in my career, I'm so grateful for them and um I wouldn't be here without…"
The unfinished thought — King searching for the right words to cap a message that had clearly moved her — might say as much about her leadership style as any formal press conference answer. Ireland Women enter this next phase of their cycle with a captain who has done the lower rungs, who has been humbled by injury, and who is determined to keep paying forward the help she credits for putting her here.
