BY RICHARD BULLICK
DEFENCE coach Hugh Hogan says improving Ireland are relishing the challenge of facing formidable France in Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener at Ravenhill, buoyed by their successful campaign at WXV1 last autumn.
Having thrashed Australia 36-10 at Ravenhill before travelling to Canada, Scott Bemand’s side produced a famous upset of world champions New Zealand and bounced back from a defeat against the hosts by beating USA to claim runners-up place at that tournament.
That followed on from finishing third in last spring’s Six Nations, which clinched qualification for the 2025 World Cup, so this weekend’s French fixture is the start of a huge year for women’s rugby and an Ireland team determined to keep progressing.
Including two warm-up matches in early August, Ireland will have a minimum of 10 Tests over the coming months, a figure which could rise to 13 if they scale the heights at the World Cup and Hogan agrees it’s an exciting time to be involved with the set-up.
Having previously worked with Leinster and Welsh side Scarlets in the men’s game, defence specialist Hogan was brought onto the coaching ticket last summer by Bemand along with forwards coach Alex Codling and Ulsterman Gareth Steenson as kicking coach.
Former Munster hooker Denis Fogarty remains as scrum coach and there is also a strong support team assembled, evidence of the IRFU’s increased commitment to the women’s side overseen by Performance Director David Humphreys.
The much-changed coaching group had an immediate impact last autumn and a squad of 40 has been in camp for the past few weeks building towards this opening game against France, who defeated Ireland 38-17 in Le Mans this time last year.
Albeit late tries by 20-year-old namesakes Aoife Wafer and Aoife Dalton put a gloss on the final scoreline that day, their touchdowns were reward for a very spirited performance by the unfancied visitors in front of a hostile crowd of some 17,000.
France have run up a half century of points on each of their last two visits to these shores but they didn’t perform particularly well at the WXV1 tournament last autumn compared to the girls in green, fuelling hopes of Ireland taking another huge scalp this weekend.
However, while this is a target game for ambitious Ireland, Hogan naturally isn’t making any rash predictions but believes the outcome will be in the melting pot and confidently declares: “Our expectation is that we’ll challenge France.
“Like any high-quality Test match, it comes down to moments. There’s big moments in games and, when you can win some of those moments, you put them in the bank. If you lose some of them, they may hurt you or cost you points.
“What we expect on the weekend is a strong challenge from France, but we’ll be aiming to put out a strong Irish performance as well. It’s going to come down to moments, and if we can put more in the win column then we’ll be in with a great shout of winning the game.”
Expectations of Ireland have increased on the back of their resurgence over the past year, which brings its own pressure, but Hogan is confident that the strong foundations laid down are being built upon by this hard-working group of players and coaches.
“There’s evolution and layers going in all the time. I think to challenge for a Six Nations tournament, you have to have a strong set-piece, your scrum and lineout, so we’ve doubled down and we’ve gone after that.
“You’ve also got to have a strong defensive game, allied to your kicking strategy. I think that was a growth for us in Vancouver and it’s another aspect to the game that we’ve got to continue to drive.
“We also want to be ambitious in how we play the game. We’ve been developing different layers to our attack decision-making – when it might be on to move the ball, or keep the ball alive, that we’ll try and go after those opportunities as well.”
The level of intensity this Saturday will be very different to what most of Bemand’s squad have experienced over recent months in a Celtic Challenge competition which was heavily dominated by Irish sides Wolfhounds and Clovers.
However, it provided the players with valuable game-time on a consistent basis, both set-ups were closely aligned to the national team model and, with Bemand heavily involved, the Celtic Challenge has helped broaden the base and embed a clear training identity.
“The Celtic Challenge has given us a really positive and strong training identity, with both teams training in the same model and intensity we do with the national team, and being supported by national coaches, which is a real benefit.
“However, we’ve also been able to identify what the players haven’t experienced so much of in those games and then we can focus in on those in training here,” reflects Hogan, accepting the Irish players weren’t really under the pump much in those games.
“It has been useful for various reasons but, as we get focused on representing Ireland now, we’ve been able to double down on the areas where maybe they haven’t able to experience as much and have a need for.”
Conscious that the players haven’t been tested enough or really put to the pin of their collars regularly in Celtic Challenge games, training has been tailored to engineer the sort of pressurised situations Ireland will face against France, who are ranked fourth in the world.
“For example, we’ve been able to play an overload in certain scenarios. So we might defend against 18 players or conversely attack against 18 players. That’s something we’ve been conscious of trying to challenge the players with.
“What they’ve experienced in the Celtic Challenge won’t be what they experience in the first 10-15 minutes against France, but that’s part of what our remit is – setting the players up to succeed.
“So we’ve been mindful of the huge positives they have experienced over recent months but also what else we need to dial into or really double down on so that we give them the best chance. We want to shock the French more so than feel intimidated or shocked ourselves.
“We need to be better again than last year and our focus is on building upwards. Scott has been in the job a year and a half at this stage and, when he started off, he built a road map of where this Ireland team can get to.
“Truthfully, we are tracking fairly well but we have to keep making progress. We don’t want to settle for where we are,” insists Hogan, whose boss Bemand hasn’t shied away from setting the ambitious target of making the last four at this year’s World Cup.
That tournament in England gets underway on August 22, with Ireland facing group games against Japan, Spain and New Zealand, but even though that is on the horizon, Hogan is confident the team’s full focus is on this Six Nations campaign at present.
“The World Cup is probably in the telescope, or long-distance view. It’s a really, really exciting year for sure. From this week through to the end of the World Cup, we know that we have 10 Test matches, potentially as many as 13 if you play the knockout games.
“For this group at the moment, the focus is on the now because it feels like quite a while since we played as a team. To put on an Ireland shirt is special and everyone’s excited to go out on Saturday and play France,” he enthused.
(©INPHO/Ben Brady)
