BY RICHARD BULLICK
RETURNING skipper Sam Monaghan, head coach Scott Bemand and Player of the Match Grace Moore were all understandably upbeat after Ireland scored five tries in coming from 14-0 down to beat Scotland in last Saturday’s first World Cup warm-up game.
Their 27-21 victory over the Scots in Cork has left everyone in good spirits ahead of what is likely to be a much-changed team facing a Canadian side ranked second in the world at Ulster Rugby’s Affidea Stadium this Saturday (12 noon, BBC2).
Young Ulster prop Sadhbh McGrath forced her way over for a great touchdown to spark the fightback for an Ireland team that understandably looked rustier in their first fixture since April than opponents who had played Italy the week before.
This was 32-year-old Monaghan’s first match since tearing her cruciate playing for Gloucester Hartpury in last summer’s English Premiership final and she came through unscathed before her scheduled withdrawal late in the first half. It was great to be back.
“It feels amazing. I have to say these girls have been unreal to me over the last 14 months. I definitely wouldn’t be here without them,” said Monaghan, who shares the Ireland captaincy with flanker Edel McMahon.
“I’m just very proud we could pull out the performance in the end. I know we had a tough 20 minutes, I think that was getting the cobwebs off. I’m very, very proud of the first cappers as well. That was a tough game to come into, and I thought they really performed.”
Bemand had cut a frustrated figure in the first half, not helped by blips in electronic communications with colleagues on the touchline and annoyance that perceived obstruction in the lead-up to Scotland’s second try hadn’t been picked up on by officials.
But by the end he was quite content and justifiably enthused, especially when factoring in a degree of pragmatism around the reality that it took Ireland a while to get going against opponents with a match under their belts.
“First game after pre-season, you kind of go get your straps back. Test match arena, obviously after a seven-week build-up, I think we probably looked like we hadn’t a game last week whereas Scotland came out and looked like they’d had a game,” he reflected.
“So they were slightly more battle-hardened than us, but I was really pleased with the girls. There was no sense of panic, it was ‘OK, well we understand what we need to do and how we’re going to do it’, and they simply just moved through the gears.
“I think there is more to come from us as well. We left a few points out there. We built pressure on their line, so there will be some bits to learn from that,” said Bemand, who fielded a relatively experimental line-up at Virgin Media Park.
“But it wasn’t going to be perfect, first game out after the summer. What we wanted to see were shoots, we wanted to see that we could go after certain bits of the game, and that we can get through the gears quite quickly on those.
“As we know, next week we’ve got Canada coming. The challenges keep coming thick and fast now, and hopefully that puts us in a good space to go over to England and attack the World Cup.”
Having just switched her allegiance from England to Ireland at the end of June, Exeter Chiefs centre Nancy McGillivray scored a try on her debut while two young Connacht back rows, Ivana Kiripati and her replacement Ailish Quinn, also won their first caps in Cork.
11-year-old fan Ailish Quinn met Ireland hooker Cliodhna Moloney (right) at the home World Cup of 2017 and (below) Ailish Quinn pictured with her now team-mate Cliodhna Moloney the day before winning her first cap
There was a photo taken on Friday of Quinn with Cliodhna Moloney, to go with one of the then 11-year-old fan Ailish star-struck to meet the Irish hooker at the last World Cup Ireland qualified for back in 2017. The front-rower is the only player from that squad still around.
“I’m delighted for the first cappers today. We got a try on debut for Nancy. That’s going to create more competition. We know the quality and calibre that Aoife Dalton has in that 13 shirt,” said Bemand, referring to Ireland’s reigning Player of the Year who sat out the game.
“Nancy come in and started to hit her straps as she went through the game there so I’m delighted, not just for them, but it’s a really important piece for us in growing our capability, and we’re developing some depth.
“I thought Ivana kept fronting up, and then getting Ailish on the pitch. There are players there that you’re going to see for not just this World Cup but the World Cup after. If we look to the next one, in Australia in 2029, we’ve probably got three groups of back rowers.
“The competition is going to be immense. We spoke about growing depth within our shores here and hopefully the future is looking bright. On the back of that, it’s probably worth a shout-out to the returning girls.
“There’s been a few that have not played much rugby for over a year, and to get them back on the pitch, and to come through a battle, not an easy win but a battle, is a big testament to all the hard work they’ve done to get back.”
The Ireland supremo enjoyed how his side had put the hammer down with two tries in quick succession towards the end of the first half, saying it had shown they were ‘there to play’, with the Meabh Deely score illustrating ‘a little bit of that ruthless touch from us’.
“This was game one, and we go into next week against Canada in Belfast with some bits to get after. In WXV1, Canada beat us and pushed England pretty hard (losing 21-12) so this is a great chance for us to see how far we’ve come.
“We wanted to build performance momentum, and there are areas of that game where we can say we have. We’ve got new caps on the pitch, we’re building our depth all the time. Now we’re ready to go and test it against a World Cup contender,” Bemand concluded.
Meanwhile, versatile back five forward Moore believes that the hard work in pre-season throughout June and July will stand to Ireland as they face into this World Cup campaign which gets underway with a group game against Japan in Northampton on August 24.
Despite having to leave the field early on with blood streaming from a gash above her eye, Moore returned and had a very productive outing on her 10th start for Ireland as she won her 21st international cap.
A robust physical presence, the Ealing Trailfinders player was involved in the lead-up to two of Ireland’s tries and made a number of bruising runs in the course of a performance which offered reassurance about Ireland’s depth in that sector.
Injured Dorothy Wall and Erin King have already been ruled out of the World Cup while Aoife Wafer is in a race against the clock to be fit for the tournament but in the likes of McMahon, Ulster’s Brittany Hogan, Moore and Deirbhile Nic a Baird, Bemand has still strong options.
Those injuries to others could mean more opportunities for Moore over the next few weeks, but Grace’s thoughts were with her stricken colleagues who have had to deal with the heartbreak of seeing their World Cup dreams snatched away.
“Our jersey presentation was probably one of the most emotional we’ve had so far in my career. I think we really brought it for those girls who weren’t out here today but have made us get to where we are, and this is just the start.
“Those weeks of pre-season, the hard slog, people coming back from rehab, it’s just testament to who these people are. We’re so looking forward to the World Cup, and looking forward to further growth as a team,” said the London-born 29-year-old.
It hadn’t been the best start to the afternoon for Ireland, with the team falling 14 points behind, while Moore was in the wars with that facial cut, but thankfully all came good in the end for the girls in green.
“Rugby is not always a perfect game and the start wasn’t great, but we came together and stuck in it together. We pulled each other out of those deep places, we got our purple patches, and we grew as a team throughout the game. This is just the start for us now.
“We need to play against opposition to see where we’re at, to put our practices into games and the only way is up from here. We are going to keep learning, keep growing together and we have a big year of rugby ahead of us.
“It’s been a long pre-season, but we have worked so hard and after each block we have just come back even stronger and even better,” declared Moore, who previously played for Saracens before joining Trailfinders.
