No matter how quick, how meteoric a rise may be for a player who switches sports, there will remain an innate difficulty involved.
The base-level confidence borne from of years of practice, experience and intrinsic understanding -a thousand hours and all that – is invaluable in any sport.
Considine’s athleticism in Gaelic football action for Clare ensured she was marked out as a talent to be tested with the oval ball. Entering rugby through the Sevens programme, she earned 15-a-side honours just as the build-up to the 2017 World Cup intensified and, together with Alison Miller, she became a front-line wing for the hosts in that tournament.
When things are not going well for a team, though, the wing can be a lonely place. And Considine was not immune from the errors which dogged Ireland on their way to a dispiriting eighth-place finish.
There is one sure-fire way to take the mind out of the low points of August 2017, however.
Get out. Get away. See the world. Broaden the mind.
Fortunately, Considine had already planned to do exactly that and she was wheels-up on 1 September.
“I went off to Australia for a year. I came back and I joked that ‘I was one of the old ones!’ I was like, ‘What happened in a year?’”
New head coach Adam Griggs entered with a remit to be a new broom, while a handful of established talents had signalled the World Cup would be their last outing on the international stage. Meanwhile, the Clare woman was making sure youth was not wasted on her as she embarked on time in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and New York.
She worked plenty to pay her way during the career break. The investments into her sporting life was not halted either, but now it was pressure-free and wholly enjoyable again. She played Sevens, some AFL and in America she joined forces with her sister – Ailish – now a rookie recruit for Adelaide Crows – to form a midfield partnership and help the Na Fianna club lift a New York title.
But that ‘international rugby player’ tag wasn’t to be shaken off.
The Clare woman celebrates one of two tries against Italy. Source: Matteo Ciambelli/INPHO
“I think you need to step away to get your love back again,” says Considine, with the guts of a season behind her.
“I love being back in. You miss it. As much as you hate getting up at 5am for the gym, you hate that your evenings and weekends are gone, you miss it.
The pangs for rugby culminated during the Six Nations, with the dreaded ‘content not available in your region’ message, dodgy Wifi and dodgier streams contriving to underline how far removed she was from the setup.
“You love rugby and you love who you’re playing it with. That was the hardest part, missing everybody.
“They had something really good last year and I missed out on that. You fall back in love with the sport, with the routine and you get used to it again when you’re not told what to wear, what colour t-shirt to wear. It is hard to adjust your life to it.”