Anna McGann celebrates Ireland’s seventh try as they qualified for the World Cup last eight (©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
BY RICHARD BULLICK
IT may not have been a perfect performance, with the concession of five tries a legitimate cause for concern and a plethora of frustrating little errors, but Ireland head coach Scott Bemand was entitled to take the positive view after his side’s 43-27 triumph over Spain.
After failing to qualify for the last World Cup, Ireland have secured their ticket to the knockout stages of this tournament with a round of group games still to go courtesy of two bonus-point victories on consecutive Sundays in Northampton.
Ireland have topped their previous highest score at a World Cup twice in the space of seven days, running in 13 tries between the two matches and utilising 27 players, all but five of whom have had at least one start so far.
Following their convincing 42-14 victory in the opening game against Japan, Bemand showed confidence in Ireland’s squad depth by opting for rotation against Spain, making no fewer than seven changes to his starting line-up, and still they won well.
Taking that approach should help keep key players fresh and maintain motivation among more peripheral figures while increasing competition for places and giving Bemand more options as this campaign progresses.
But the move wasn’t without risk considering the tight games Ireland have had against Spain previously, notably the disastrous defeat in the qualifier for the last World Cup and then in the 2023 WXV3 title decider when Bemand’s side came from 10 down to win 15-13.
The gamble might have backfired badly but instead Ireland march on to face world champions New Zealand in Brighton (2.45pm) with a close-knit squad in fantastic spirits as evidenced by the raucous singing coming from the changing-room as Bemand addressed the media.
Along with quarter-final qualification and Ireland’s highest score in a World Cup match for a second consecutive Sunday, there were celebrations of popular prop Linda Djougang becoming the first player to reach 50 caps since Nora Stapleton back in 2017.
Whether Ireland are still struggling slightly to adjust to the arrival of a new defence coach so close to the World Cup is debatable but their attacking game is coming on nicely with a real variety of often eye-catching tries.
In contrast to the two warm-up matches, Ireland have got off to fast starts in this World Cup campaign to date and, admittedly against moderate opposition, their set-pieces have functioned well except for a brief wobble at the lineout in the first half against Japan.
So understandably and justifiably, Bemand’s bottle was half-full when he spoke to the media, though the man who was assistant coach of his native England at the last two tournaments didn’t shy away from the reality that the hurdles will get much higher from here onwards.
“This is exactly where we want to be, we’ve got our two wins, we’ve got two bonus-point wins, all roads lead to Brighton now and we want to go and challenge a World Cup contender next weekend,” he declared.
“We knew what we wanted out of today, to get a bonus-point win. At the start of the day, I’d have bitten your hand off for that, just because of the magnitude of the importance of what it signifies.
“As you can hear, it’s a happy changing-room in there. Qualifying for the quarter-finals at the earliest possible chance, Ireland’s highest score in a World Cup match, Linda’s 50th cap and now we roll on to Brighton for another challenge we’re hugely excited about.
“There was some nice variety as well with the tries today, forwards making some good dents and the backs finishing off, and we know that (range) is going to be important as we get deeper into this competition.”
Bemand acknowledged that there were frustrating but fixable aspects of Ireland’s display, but rightly gave significant credit to a talented and tenacious Spanish side who showed what they are capable of with a superb performance to be proud of at Franklin’s Gardens.
“We played Spain two years ago, in WXV3, we were 10-0 down at half-time but managed to come back and win that. So we knew they were going to be dogged and resilient, and I think they’ve also improved in the period since then.
“I felt we controlled the game well early on, and some of the kicking in the first half was sublime, down into the corners and just keeping pressure on Spain, but they’re a nuggety, good team who will feed off anything they can.
“What we started to do as we went through the game, we’d have good moments, good exits, but give them an entry back, so in the end it felt like a very flip-flop game where we’d get out, give away a penalty and then we’re back in defending 10 minutes of pick-and-go.
“So we’ll look hard at that, about how we can stop it and what we need to do. We need to learn to manage that and deal with it a bit better. We’ll look pretty hard at our own performance, the bits where we can grow. There are always bits to grow.
“We’ve never professed to be the finished article, but everything’s fixable and scoring seven tries out there today shows that we’ve got some firepower and shows that we’ve got some tools that we can call upon.
“Because of the errors which crept in, we weren’t stringing the good bits together enough so the game got fractious. We gave Spain those entries, they went to their pick-and-go game and they’re pretty effective at that.
“Spain have turned up today and made it a really good contest so fair play to them for that, but we got what we needed to achieve so now we want to keep momentum going, focus on the next game and know we’ll have a quarter-final to look forward to.”
This huge double hit on Sam Monaghan led to the Ireland skipper leaving the field injured
There have been some suggestions that Ireland should perhaps prioritise preparations for a last-eight tie the following weekend at the expense of going all out against the Black Ferns but Bemand is vowing that he wants his side to put their best foot forward this Sunday.
“My understanding is that it’s a sell-out down in Brighton and we’ll treat this match with the merit it deserves, in terms of the occasion, the competition we’re in, the momentum we’re trying to grow and how we want to take people along with us.
“Have qualified for the quarter-finals takes a degree of pressure off, but we’ve always said we want to keep growing and part of that is competing with World Cup contenders which New Zealand clearly are.
“There’ll be bits of fix-ups from today we’ll go after, trying to be better than we were here or last week. It will be a fresh set of challenges across the board against a strong New Zealand team, but if we can get a performance out there and create a result it keeps the tide rising.
“We’ll aim to get our best game out there, hopefully fire some shots, ask some good questions of them and see what happens,” said Bemand, whose side famously upset the formidable Black Ferns in last September’s WXV1 clash in Vancouver.
O’Brien’s final minute conversion off the far upright gave Ireland a sensational 29-27 victory on a night when Aoife Wafer bagged a brace of first half tries and rookie Erin King came off the bench to touch down twice in an unforgettable game in which Neve Jones also scored.
Unfortunately for Ireland, World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year King has been ruled out of this tournament through injury along with influential forward Dorothy Wall, while the world-class Wafer has yet to feature following a knee procedure this summer.
Joint skipper Sam Monaghan missed all of last season on the back of a cruciate rupture, so having her back for the World Cup has been a big boost, but she was taken off in the second quarter against Spain having landed heavily following a huge double tackle.
“Sam got a bang to the hip, she was feeling it and not moving as fluidly as we’d like. So, knowing where we’re at in the competition, with big games ahead, and believing in the group we have around her, we made the decision to take her off.
“Undoubtedly we missed her on the pitch, her ability to carry and her leadership – though Amee-Leigh (Costigan) captained outstandingly from the wing when Sam went off – but we felt we could get through this game and were conscious of the bigger picture at play.
“This is game two of what will be a six-game run if we get everything right, and we’ll need Sam to go deep in this competition. We got the win and are into the quarter-finals, so it feels like we made the right call and now we’ll see how she pulls up over the next 24 hours or so.”
Ireland sensationally knocked New Zealand out of the France 2014 World Cup with a shock 17-14 triumph in a group game in Marcoussis, so the Black Ferns – who secured their own passage to the knockout stages by beating Japan 62-19 – will be out for a revenge victory.
However, with the growing ‘Green Wave’ of support behind this ambitious team it should be a very exciting clash on the south coast, though Djougang – to whom Bemand paid tribute – has acknowledged Ireland will need an improved performance from the Spain game.
“Linda is such an important player for us. I was actually there for her first cap in a different dugout (with England in 2019). It’s been incredible watching somebody that we could see had potential to go on and become a real force in the women’s game.
“Getting 50 caps takes a special player. It’s been a good few years since Ireland have had a 50-capper, but she’s got loads more caps in her. Linda can go deep in a game, she’s physical, she’s brave. She’s a great person to have on our team,” he enthused.
Linda Djougang leads Ireland out at Franklin’s Gardens on the occasion of her 50th cap and (below) celebrates the occasion in the dressing room afterwards (©INPHO/Ben Brady)
Ireland wing Amee-Leigh Costigan crosses against Spain for her second try of the World Cup (©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
Two-try back row forward Grace Moore on the rampage against Spain during Sunday’s win
Replacement scrumhalf Emily Lane gets a pass away in Ireland’s second World Cup match (©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
