Legendary Gloucester-Hartpury and Ireland prop ‘Buggy’ on how hockey lead to playing rugby around the world, battling burnout, why the benefits of the game outweigh injury risks and being happily retired.
Watch the full chat with Kathryn Buggy below:
Discovering rugby through hockey
Kathryn Buggy retired in 2025 a Gloucester-Hartpury and Ireland rugby legend. But incredibly she didn’t discover the game until she was in her 20s and was focussing on chasing another sporting dream.
“I grew up playing sports like GAA, played hurling, Gaelic football then played hockey into university.
“I came into rugby quite late. I went out to Shannon RFC and was doing strength and conditioning with the under 18 boys and their coach said ‘Oh, there’s a girls team. Would you be interested in trying?’”
“I was like ‘oh, sure. I’ll have a go and then that was it. That was me done. I really, really enjoyed it,” Buggy told Sport and Life.
Buggy, rugby and the world
Her new-found love of rugby would help lead Buggy on a globe-trotting adventure in her 20s, spending time in New Zealand and Australia. It was a coming-of-age experience that she’d recommend to others.
“I definitely say go and do it. Either go play in New Zealand or play in Australia and just get immersed in a different culture and environment because the thing is you make friends across the globe.”
Juggling a day job and rugby and burnout
Buggy eventually settled at Gloucester Hartpury more than a decade ago, studying while playing the sport she’d quickly come to love – for the club and for her country Ireland.
But she said it was challenging. The women’s game was becoming higher level, requiring her to train most evenings, whilst still needing to fulfil her day job duties at Hartpury University and Hartpury College.
“So over the last like five, six years I’ve been working within the sports academy there running the facilities.
“It did work well, but it was also very early mornings and it was a full-time job. So you’re trying to do a full-time job alongside what’s considered professional sport.
“It was tough for me. I definitely experienced burnout one year. That was the first year we won the PWR.
“On that day I just started crying. I thought it was depression. But it wasn’t, it was just burnout. I was completely depleted physically and mentally.”
Buggy considered retiring at that point, but recovered to help Gloucester-Hartpury to the three-peat, three PWR titles in a row.
“It was tough but you know but you do what you do because you love the game and you love your teammates and that environment. The game is exploding and and people want to be a part of it.”
Tackling technique the key to safer rugby
Buggy says rightly that more and more people want to be a part of women’s rugby. But parents of both boys and girls may well have concerns over the dangers of playing the physical sport – especially with so much media focus on the dangers of head injuries.
But Buggy believes good coaching is key to safeguarding youngsters.
“I think a lot of it is your technical detail as a kid. If you can nail down your tackling and learn the safe process. They are things that obviously are going to help you avoid concussion.
“The positives definitely outweigh the negatives in my eyes.”
Retired but still part of the team
I’ve benefited from Buggy’s retirement from playing, she, along with Mark Atkinson and I have hosted The Blindside podcast for Gloucester Rugby this past season. It’s been fun and I’ve learned a lot from them both.
I’ve also been impressed with how she’s handled stepping away, knowing that can be a big identity shift for elite sports performers.
She says it helps that she’s still connected with Hartpury and is still having fun with the team.
“Well, I live in the household with two of the players anyway so I couldn’t get away from it! But to be honest it’s nice to still be able to go into the club like Murph (head coach Dan Murphy) says ‘open door, come in whenever you want.’
“You miss the crack before the game. I don’t even miss the winning, I just miss being around my friends in that environment. But to be honest there’s not one social that I haven’t been invited on yet!”
Follow Buggy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathrynbuggy/
