Before her first training session with Dublin University Football Club (DUFC), Anna Grace was having second thoughts about joining the team. She asked herself: “Will I even bother going to training? I’ll look like an idiot – I haven’t done this before.”
Lucky for her, she decided to suck it up and go to training. Now – two years on – she describes DUFC as her “second family”. She is the club’s entertainment officer, so her job is to make sure that the students who are unsure about playing rugby give it a go. She is well-qualified for the role. After all, she used to be that student.
Grace had joined DUFC out of interest, having checked them out on Instagram before freshers’ week. The sport intrigued her, and, approaching the club’s stand in freshers’ square, she asked herself: “Why not?”
She tells me all this over the phone. She’s in America for the summer, and – perhaps because she is so far from home – is in a reflective mood and feeling nostalgic about her first year in Trinity.
“I was looking with my friends at the freshers’ fair and we were just signing up for everything, handing over like a million euro
“When I think about it now – the buzz around the place and all the nights out – it was so nice”, she says. “Everyone was up for trying new things. Everyone was joining new clubs.”
“I was looking with my friends at the [freshers’ fair] and we were just signing up for everything – left, right and centre – as you do on freshers’ week, handing over like a million euro.”
Grace had decided to study law at Trinity after the College’s open day. She liked the vibes of the Law School, and liked that it was in the middle of the city. College did not disappoint her: “It was something so brand new and exciting.” She got a place in Halls, and everything was abuzz with new friends and experiences.
A lot of students see college as a place to reinvent themselves – to try the things that had piqued their interest in secondary school but they hadn’t had the time or freedom to pursue. For Grace, that was rugby.
“I’d always loved watching rugby growing up”, she explains. “I’d never actually played it though, because our school only played hockey, so it was never something I could get into.” Despite her initial doubts, Grace was quickly pulled into the orbit of the club. “Everyone was so welcoming and inviting”, she says. “I just decided: ‘Why not?’” The two or three training sessions a week kept her away from “the Domino’s and take-aways and spice-bags” that become the staple of many a fresher’s diet and helped keep her mentally and physically healthy.
Trinity rugby is now a massive part of Grace’s life. The club gives her a sense of accomplishment. The clubmates that surround her make her feel at home, and she feels like she is part of something special. All of t⁸his takes up lots of time and energy, but when asked whether rugby has taken her eye off of her course, Grace says: “Not so much.”
Extracurriculars, especially sports and stuff, should be done – everyone should be doing it
“I’m lucky that, with law, the contact hours are very little”, she tells me. “I still managed to get to third year, and still be so involved in rugby. Extracurriculars, especially sports and stuff, should be done – everyone should be doing it.”
I ask her to sum up how DUFC has shaped her college experience. She laughs. “Oh, wow – that is a big question.” Mulling it over, she says: “I think I get a bigger sense of belonging in Trinity. I know a lot of my friends who didn’t join clubs and societies love college, but they don’t get the deep sense that they belong there.”
The club has organised a training camp at the end of freshers’ week. After that, the team will be back to training, which Grace says will be a “little bit more serious” this year. The team were promoted from Division Three last year, but missed out on the Division Three title after losing to MU Barnhall by two points in a hard-fought final in Naas. “I can’t wait to get back to the girls – I really miss them”, Grace tells me.
Grace seems to have university life down – so what’s her advice to freshers? “I know it’s a cliché, but just get involved.” She says that joining a club and society is the surest way of making a mark on campus while doing something you love – not to boost your ego, but rather for your own self-fulfilment: “You don’t want to look back at the three or four years you have here and not have anything to your name. I mean, if you can say ‘I was part of this club, or I was part of this society’, it’s such a great thing.”
“For myself, I’d probably say get to the library a bit earlier coming up to exams”, she laughs. This quip, however, is very much an afterthought. Somehow, I think DUFC – and college life – means a lot more to her than essays and exams.
