Alana McInerney is determined to do things her way as she takes the Vodafone Women's Interprovincial Championship by storm.
The Munster winger is one of the breakthrough stars of the series so far, adding a late match-clinching try against Leinster last weekend to a hat-trick against Ulster in round one.
An AIL league winner with UL Bohs earlier this year, McInerney comes from a "football family" in Ennis.
Her father Francis was the captain of the Clare team that pulled of one of the biggest shocks in GAA history when they beat Kerry in the 1992 Munster final – the game that gave dairy farmers a huge job of work on the following Tuesday.
Brother Mark lines out for the current crop of Banner footballers but once Alana found rugby, there was no turning back.
"I only really started in 2017, I wasn’t exposed to rugby before that," the 23-year-old tells RTÉ Sport.
"Growing up, I never really had a dream of playing for Munster or playing for Ireland 'cos rugby wasn’t really on my radar.
"My family is a football family, my dad played for Clare and my brother plays for Clare so I’d just be football mad.
"Thank God, one of my friends, Aoife, said Ennis RFC were starting up a girls’ team in 2017 and we said it would be a good pre-season for the football but once I started rugby it overtook the football."
McInerney, who graduates from UL on Monday with a degree in Industrial Biochemistry, adapted and quickly moved through the ranks.
She trained with the Ireland senior side back in 2021, has been in Sevens camps and featured for the Clovers in the combined provinces competitions.
She puts her form this season down to discipline and being in the right place at the right time. But she’s being modest.
"I just stood out by the wing, all the forwards and backs were doing the work for me and all I had to do was catch the ball and run forwards," she says when asked about her hot streak.
The Clare woman had to beat seven defenders in total for those four scores; they were all well taken and instinctive.
"Even the three I scored against Ulster, I said to Chisom [Ugwueru], who was on the other wing, you’re probably gutted she wasn’t on my side," she says.
"It shows how good we are at pulling the trigger and that we are well able to play ball when we want to.
"The form this year? I was lucky enough to be involved with the National Talent Squad (NTS), so I’m getting good quality training. The coaches there are unbelievable, Niamh Briggs, S&C Lorna Barry.
"We’re training three or four times (a week) in the gym, so probably just being disciplined and the extra work I’ve been putting in.
"I’ve been playing for [UL] Bohs and we’ve had good form there so thank God, I’ve hopefully brought it through to this Interpros but at the moment I am really enjoying my rugby."
Head coach Fiona Hayes is delighted with how McInerney, who started out as a centre, has developed recently.
"She's obviously after getting a little bit of speed from somewhere - I don't know where she found that - and she's flying up and down that wing," former Ireland prop Hayes says.
"She's been just a really good player for us and it was the same in the club season last year.
"She's just performing unbelievable and I think with Alana, when her confidence is high, she's played some of her best rugby and I think the way she has been playing in the last two games, in particular, even when she's training, she's training really well."
And the latest slot for the Women’s interprovincial series comes just ahead of the international window where Scott Bemand’s Ireland will host Australia in Belfast on 14 September before heading to Canada to take on New Zealand, Canada and the USA in the WXV1.
"At the moment I’m free if Scott wants to call me up. If it happens it happens, if it doesn’t it doesn’t," she smiles.
Already qualified for the final, Munster take on Connacht in Galway this Saturday (2.30pm) and another performance of note will make McInerney hard to ignore.
"I love playing under Fiona Hayes," adds McInerney.
"I love her style, she’s big into themes.
"For Bohs, we had the ‘Rocky’ theme, and I don’t know if we are allowed say it but this year our theme is Frank Sinatra and his song, ‘My Way’.
"So, we want to do it our way and the Munster way."
Meanwhile, Hayes confirmed that Eimear Considine and Nicole Cronin will be come into the mix for Saturday's game, while Deirbhile Nic a Bháird won't feature in the series as the Ireland forward recovers from a long-term knee injury.
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