Of the Richmond Ladies players who celebrated lifting the Women’s Premiership title on Sunday, captain Jackie Shiels was not the one waking up with a sore head come Monday morning.

The 31-year-old is not only a teacher at Waldegrave School – where she reported for duty 12 hours after beating Saracens 28-17 in the final at the Stoop – but she is also an Irish international preparing for the defence of a Six Nations crown won nearly 12 months ago.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Decisive: Holly Myers, far left, is congratulated on scoring Richmond's fourth try last Sunday

Shiels, who nearly did not appear in the final due to injury, has not had it all her own way when it comes to representing her country.

But after missing out on the domestic title for the past two years, at least things are going well on the home front.

“I am 10 years at Richmond and its a huge thing to captain such an experienced team. We’ve used 30+ players this season and one player made her first team debut at 42 years old,” she said.

“I’m not going to compare this with winning the Six Nations, but it is a massive achievement and I’m very proud to be captain of this squad.”

She added: “I got injured with Saracens before Christmas and didn’t get permission from Ireland to play the semi-final because I hadn’t trained fully with them.

“I had to train with them last weekend, but the Irish management allowed me off and I want to thank them for that.”

Shiels, usually a centre, pulled the strings at fly half on Sunday as her try opened the scoring before Emma Croker, Anna Caplice and Holly Myers put Richmond up 22-5 at half time.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Tribute: Captain Jackie Shiels hailed the efforts of her forwards, led by Anna Caplice, above

A pair of Abi Chamberlain penalties kept a Sarries fight back at bay after the break to land Richmond a record ninth Women’s Premiership title and Shiels paid tribute to the efforts of her forwards.

“The 15 that started knew they had a job to do,” she added.

“We had a really strong bench, so everyone went out in the first half to empty the tank.

“When you have forwards who do that much damage why not give them the ball?

“They create space for us and so the backs can do something with it. We know what their strengths are, so why not use them?”