A jarring halt for Rianna Jarrett

When Rianna Jarrett made a sensational debut for Brighton on February 25, scoring twice in an FA Cup win against Crystal Palace, she couldn’t possibly have imagined that her first game for the club would also be her last, at least for this season.

“Yeah, my one and only game,” she laughs ruefully, “the last game we played as a club. We then went into the international break and when we came back, that was when everything came to a standstill.”

That international window also saw the striker play the last game of football she has been able to play this year, Ireland’s 3-0 win in a European Championship qualifier in Montenegro, a fixture which had to be played behind closed doors as the Covid-19 pandemic tightened its grip. “A surreal feeling,” is how she describes the experience.

Now, Rianna, in common with her fellow Irish internationals in England, is coming to terms with Monday's announcement that the remainder of this season’s Women’s Super League has been cancelled.

Back home in her native Wexford, she expresses disappointment at the decision but says she understands the rationale.

“The biggest thing they were saying is that safety comes first and foremost, and the league and the clubs were unable to come up with a way that we’d be able to return to training and playing safely. And ultimately that was the deciding factor. 

"Unfortunately, the women’s teams don’t have the budgets such as the men’s teams have where we can get adequately tested. We’re all disappointed that we’re not going to finish the season but we all understand that sometimes football just has to take a back seat.”

Having signed a six-month contract when joining Brighton from Wexford Youths in January, Rianna will be holding talks with the club in the coming days about her future.

“It’s their decision so I just have to wait and see what happens,” she says. “The last two months I was doing a (fitness) programme Brighton gave us with a view to a return to playing this season but now with the league called off we’re in kind of our off-season.

“So as soon as the contract talks are held and everyone knows where they stand, we’ll then be given an off-season programme which will lead into a pre-season programme to gear us up fornext season, whenever that will start.”

READ MOREWhat will the Premier League's contact training be like?

In the meantime, she has been working on keeping herself physically fit and improving aspects of her game, while also endeavouring to stay on top of the mental challenges posed by the impact of the pandemic.

“I try to stay as positive as I can but we’re all only human and we all have our days, that’s natural,” she says. 

“But it’s important, I feel, that you don’t let a bad day roll into another bad day and the next thing you know you’re having a bad couple of weeks. 

"But at least we have clarity about the club season in England now and we all know we’re building towards a fresh start.”

Similarly, she is keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the big international prize, even though the European Championship finals have been pushed back a year, and it will be Autumn at the earliest before Ireland, who currently top their qualifying group, can hope to begin their crucial three-game run-in.

“Yeah, obviously the Euros have changed from 2021 to 2022 but our goal as a squad remains the same,” she says. 

“We’ve put ourselves in a great position in terms of qualifying for our first major tournament. But we have three massive games to come, in the two Germany games and, definitely, a huge, huge game against Ukraine away. 

"We’re still focused on that and there’s regular contact with (manager) Vera Pauw and the players. The bond between the group and the management and staff is fantastic and that hasn’t changed during this pandemic.”

And, in the broadest terms, that sense of everyone being in this together is something which is central to how Rianna Jarrett views life in a time of Covid-19.

“Absolutely. This pandemic has affected everyone worldwide in every aspect of life. 

"Yes, in terms of the fact that I only signed my first professional contract in January, obviously it couldn’t have been at a worse time. But the pandemic we’re going through puts those kind of things into perspective and, for now, it means football has been put on the backburner. 

"I’m just happy that I’m safe and my family are safe at the minute. That’s the biggest thing. You can only control the controllables and hopefully we can all pick up where we left off before too long.”

READ MORE

Joshua Kimmich’s stunning chip sinks Dortmund as Bayern move seven points clear