For Lindsay Peat, dealing with cancellations and postponements was difficult.

Last March World Rugby announced that the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand would be postponed until next year due to challenges caused by Covid-19.

Of course, Peat understood that there was a global pandemic and times were tough for everyone but for someone in the twilight of their career missing opportunities to play big games and major tournaments was a blow.

"The hardest was when they cancelled the World Cup and put it back a year. I think that really floored me especially because I’m on borrowed time with the body and the age," said Peat speaking on We Become Heroes, an RTÉ Sport podcast.

"And yes, there's still the competitiveness, outside of that, I have a family that I have responsibilities to and a career that's not my focus. My focus has always been on the next goal, the next match and the next challenge and, and that's really hard and that's been overshadowed for the last 25 years.

"So that really floored me, I can't lie I really probably still haven’t got over that and the fact that we're not qualified for the World Cup."

In order to qualify, Ireland will compete against Italy, Scotland and the winners of Rugby Europe’s Women’s Championship 2020, Spain, in a round robin format.

The top team will book a spot in Group B at Rugby World Cup 2021 and the runner up will enter the Final Qualification Tournament.

Ireland finished third in the Women’s Six Nation for 2021 with wins over Wales and Italy and defeat to France. Although there were positives to take Peat feels like she has plenty of improvements to make.

"I didn't feel I was involved as I have been before, looking at the stats from the Wales and Scotland game from the 2020 campaign, 17 carries, 19 carries you know you're involved in the gain-line, even the Italy game in October, I felt I had a very good game, I was involved in a lot, I was buzzing.

"This campaign I don't know whether I overtrained or maybe I was overtired going into it. I’m so competitive, I don’t want to be second best."

We Become Heroes is a podcast hosted by RTÉ Sport journalist Marie Crowe, featuring some of Ireland's biggest sports stars.

You can watch the interview with Lindsay Peat above or listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.