The Ireland team to play Italy in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday has been named and coach Declan Kidney has opted for an unchanged lineup.

DROMARA girl Caragh Milligan made history last week when she became the youngest player to be capped at senior level by Northern Ireland in a competitive match at 15 years and 121 days.

Caragh was voted Player of the Match by her team-mates in a 2-2 draw with Belgium in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2013 qualifier on the Wednesday night in Dessel.

“I’m so, so happy to have the priviledge to be here and I’m glad that Alfie [Wylie, Northern Ireland Ladies coach] had the confidence to pick me in such a big game. I’m delighted,” she said after the game.

“It wasn’t about me though, it was about the performance and getting the result out of the game. We haven’t played so well over the last couple of games.

“We knew all we had to do was put in 110% and we could match them technically so we just had to work hard right to the end.

“I’m grateful to all the girls for recognising my performance as well.”

Caragh currently plays for Glentoran Ladies but up until recently she had been with Dromara Village.

She played for the locals from when she was around eight years old and played in the Lisburn Junior league for the club’s boys team as a 10 year old until she was 14.

Her former coach, Malcolm Hanna, said of Caragh, “Even from the early days of coaching her you could see she had a real special talent and was a stand-out, even among the boys she was playing with and against.”

IT’S probably not that well known that there are a couple of world champions living in Dromore.

But for father and son duo, Alan and Mark Walker, this weekend will be the culminaton of weeks of training as they head off to the Tug-of-War World Championships.

They will form part of the Richhill squad which will travel to Perth in Scotland in an attempt to defent their title at the 560kg category.

In 2008 the club became the first from Northern Ireland to win gold at the world championships. Alan coached that side while two other local men, John Shannon from Lisburn and John Kennedy, who resides between Dromore and Hillsborough, were part of the team. They too will be part of the team off to Scotland.

Alan has given a lifetime of service to tug-of-war in this country and is one of only two people to have been elected to the tug-of-war hall of fame.

In 2010 the championships took place in Italy and against all the odds the gold medals at the same weight class were taken back to Northern Ireland, an achievement worthy of the highest recognition.

Mark was an avid observer in 2010, being too young to compete, but two years later he is in contention for a place on the squad, having trained hard and developed tremendously well over the interveining period.

At the highest level tug-of-war is a sport requiring the utmost dedication by way of training and personal lifestyle including diet, etc.

Many seasoned observers consider the committment to be on a par with that required from top international athletes in any sport.

The four locals leave with high hopes for success.