Nichola Fryday insists she has no regrets about calling time on her international career.
The former Ireland captain made a shock announcement in July that she was stepping down. When she did so she became the second skipper, after Ciara Griffin in 2021, to seemingly end her international career in her prime.
While Ireland, under then head coach Greg McWilliams, struggled for results, Fryday was a standout player for the team.
"From the beginning, when I come up to Ireland, it was always going to be something that was an amazing experience but for me I feel it has to come to an end at some stage," said the 28-year Offaly native as she was named Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland player of the year.
"I do have career goals that I want to push on with now. Everything outside of rugby as well, all those years of not making weddings or birthdays or your family side of things.
"There comes a time when you want to put your focus back on those things and it may be a bit selfish because I am still quite early in my playing career, but I feel for me like I have given everything that I could do to Ireland.
"Now it's about putting the focus back all the people that supported me throughout those years and giving everything to them that they gave to me.
"My career side of things, I do want to focus on as well. I am really starting to focus on myself for a few years."
Reflecting on her career, she said: "I think back to when I first started in Tullamore and it was just purely for the social element of it.
"I had gone to boarding school so I didn’t have such a strong connection within the community because you are spending so much of your week away that when you come home you don’t get to see people that you may know through school and stuff like that.
"So for me to go into Tullamore and meet that whole group of girls, it gave me a new circle of friends and girls that I am still friends with today.
"When I started out there it was purely just for that element of it and it was only after a year or two where I said I would love to play for Connacht or something like that.
"I had a few sessions with Connacht and next thing Ireland was on my radar when a few years prior to that I didn’t know that there was a women’s team, or that there was a women’s team in my locality.
"So it really is crazy when I look back at everything that has come since then."
While Fryday helped Exeter to the final of the Premier 15s, Ireland regrouped under new boss Scott Bemand and won the WXV3 in Dubai in October.
Asked if there were any pangs of regret about her decision as she watched on, she said: "Any player is worried about that first tournament where you’re not there but I felt content and that I had made the right decision in my retirement.
"I am in a good place to know that I have given everything I can give to it and I am now focusing on that next stage of my life and everything else that’s with it.
"When you retire you do think about that next tournament and you are worried will I feel regret or will I feel I gave it up too early, that I could have done more, but when the girls went off I was excited for them and really wanted them to do well.
"But I knew that I had made the right choice for me and I’m content with that.
"I’m loving [life in England and with Exeter].
"The season started a bit later because of the WXV tournament but we are getting stuck into it now.
"There are different challenges this year in terms of English-qualified players and how many overseas players can be in a team so that has brought a new element to take into consideration each week.
"You really have to be on top of your game at the moment to take up one of those valuable spots so it has been good. It’s been tough but it is a new challenge and I have been enjoying it."
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