GUINNESS SIX NATIONS
IRELAND v ENGLAND
(Virgin Media Park, Cork, Saturday, BBC2 4.45pm)
BY RICHARD BULLICK
NIAMH O’Dowd didn’t have to put in as long a shift in Parma last time out as against France in the opening Guinness Six Nations game, but the mobile loosehead prop still got through a similar amount of work during Ireland’s successful Italian job.
Both flame-haired forward O’Dowd and tight-head stalwart Linda Djougang didn’t come off until very near the end at Ravenhill but the former was called ashore ahead of the hour mark against Italy shortly before her fellow prop was sinbinned for a high tackle.
On an afternoon when Italy edged the territory and possession stats but suffered a record 54-12 defeat against Ireland, the industrious O’Dowd made 18 tackles and had eight carries before giving way to Siobhan McCarthy late in the third quarter.
Against France, O’Dowd had two dominant hits among her 14 tackles – the most by any Ireland player in the match – and her tally of 14 carries was second only to her fellow Wexford woman Aoife Wafer in a stadium which held happy memories for her from 2024.
O’Dowd delivered a hugely impactful performance off the bench against Scotland in the final Six Nations game of last season, culminating in claiming the loose ball to seal the Ireland win which clinched qualification for this year’s World Cup.
Her involvement in this season’s interpros was curtailed by injury but O’Dowd featured as Leinster retained their title by beating Munster in the Belfast final at the end of August and she got her first start for Ireland on the same pitch against Australia a fortnight later.
Scott Bemand’s women walloped the fancied Wallaroos 36-10 and O’Dowd played the full match – except for her period in the sinbin – in Vancouver 15 days later as Ireland produced a stunning upset of world champions New Zealand on their WXV1 debut.
Few will forget the loosehead’s dummy and dash from the front of that fateful lineout in the lead-up to Erin King’s second try, which Dannah O’Brien converted via the far upright to put Ireland ahead for one last time with just seconds remaining.
Despite having been there from the start, O’Dowd and Djougang dug in for one final steady scrum which provided the platform for O’Brien to belt the ball into the stand and confirm a famous victory for the heroic girls in green.
With experienced campaigner Christy Haney missing that trip due to injury, Ireland were heavily reliant on their two starting props for all three games against top opposition in a period of just 12 days and both showed impressive stamina.
The pair then went deep against France before leaving the field together in the 78th minute of what was O’Dowd’s first start in the Six Nations last month and Niamh says that she and Djougang don’t mind the long shifts.
“Myself and Linda both focus on our fitness quite a lot. So if games are coming down to the wire, we know that we have enough in the tank to keep performing,” she told the media after Ireland’s loss to France in a contest much closer than the 27-15 scoreline might suggest.
“We knew it would be tough. The French scrum is very strong, and they’ve big ball carriers. They’re obviously a bigger pack than we are so we knew we were going to have to front up physically, which I think we did for the main part in that game. It was a very physical game.”
After that bruising Belfast battle, O’Dowd was happy to have the extra day’s rest before facing Italy on the following Sunday when she made her sixth consecutive start on the left of Ireland’s front row.
The most capped player in the current squad with 43 Test appearances, the versatile and durable Djougang has been an ever-present starter over recent years and can switch sides to accommodate either Haney or O’Dowd in the run-on line-up.
American native Haney remains a very important part of this squad and she threw a wonderful offload in the lead-up to Anna McGann’s hat-trick try in Parma, but the younger O’Dowd seems set to establish herself as an Ireland regular for the foreseeable future.
Mobile enough to have played wing forward for Leinster, she gives Ireland great line-speed in defence, can make valuable breaks with ball in hand and gets through an enormous amount of work with her mix of abrasiveness and dynamism.
After two rounds of this Six Nations, O’Dowd is fourth in the chart of most successful tackles by players across all six competing countries – the leading Irishwoman – and joint eighth overall for carries.
Ireland prop Niamh O’Dowd holds aloft the WXV3 trophy in Dubai in October 2023
O’Dowd, who turns 25 this month, has keep herself busy since Ireland’s heroics at WXV1, making nine starts for Wolfhounds as they retained their Celtic Challenge title, with Djougang starting seven games and Haney four.
Djougang got the bragging rights in terms of try-scoring compared to O’Dowd, though the latter did lay on one for her front row colleague as the rampaging props combined brilliantly in capitalising on an initial break by fullback Stacey Flood against Glasgow.
Last season, O’Dowd was sent to play for Clovers in the Celtic Challenge at a time when Djougang and Haney were Ireland’s first-choice propping combo but things have changed since and Niamh is set to win her 14th cap from the off against England in Cork on Saturday.
The woman known as Noddy’s debut came off the bench against Wales in the 2023 Six Nations opener and she has kept progressing in an Irish side enjoying a real renaissance under Bemand this past 18 months.
O’Dowd made a tournament-high seven dominant tackles in WXV1 and was third on Ireland’s carrying chart behind Ulsterwoman Brittany Hogan and Wafer, with her ability to survive at scrum-time meaning the team can benefit from having her in the loose.
Almost invariably lighter than her opposing prop, Old Belvedere’s O’Dowd was giving away 12kg to France’s starting tighthead in the Six Nations opener but Ireland never buckled and the much bigger Rose Bernadou even conceded a penalty for collapsing a scrum.
“It was obviously a very tough transition at the start and I am a bit smaller than most (opposing props) but I guess I’ve just tried to work on my technique and, if I can get my technique right, then I can try and outweigh the physics that are generally against me.
“I just try and work on my technique and then use it to my advantage. It can make it easier for me to play longer minutes. I put a lot of that down to how the girls back me – they let me play my game – and also the coaching staff.
“Like last year we had Dec Danaher and this year Hugh Hogan, Alex Codling. The knowledge they’ve imparted to us and how they’ve driven – not just me but the whole pack – how they’ve upped our standards, I kind of put a lot of it down to them.
“We spend a lot of time, especially on the lineout, we spend a lot of time with Codders (Codling). He’s been great,” enthused O’Dowd, the latest in a line of players to sing the highly-rated Ireland forwards coach’s praise.
“His level of detail, we’ve never experienced that level of detail. He also puts a lot of trust in us to get to that level. He backs us all the way. We’ve just put a lot of work into it every week and getting it all right.”
Niamh O’Dowd talks to Ireland scrum coach Denis Fogarty during training (©INPHO/Tom Maher)
Speaking within an hour of the defeat against France, when Ireland at one stage had scored three tries to two by the visitors but still trailed due to a hat-trick of failed conversion attempts, O’Dowd was understandably disappointed, proud and philosophical all at once.
“Obviously disappointed to be beaten but, at the same time, we’re taking a lot from that performance. We spoke all week about sticking together and throwing punches, which we did, but unfortunately we just came off on the wrong side of the result.
“I think our defence was pretty solid throughout, set-piece was good. We can take confidence from that. I guess just execution let us down at times, a few handling errors, stuff like that.
“It was probably just forcing a few passes and offloads maybe. I wouldn’t say it was nerves as such, we’d be generally quite composed. But yeah probably just forced a few things early on,” she mused.
“We obviously didn’t get the result but, at the same time, we know looking into the bigger picture, that when we meet France – if we meet them – in the World Cup, that it’s anyone’s game. It’s definitely there for the taking and we’ll take a lot of confidence from that.”
Looking ahead to the more immediate challenge against Italy, O’Dowd felt Ireland would head to Parma with confidence in both their lineout and scrum while aiming to ‘tidy up on the execution’ and that’s largely how things panned out.
Ireland’s lineout, the source of all three tries in the French fixture, again functioned smoothly but the biggest improvement was the drastic reduction in handling errors and that helped Bemand’s side show the real cutting edge they have in attack.
It will be a different challenge against the seemingly invincible England in Cork this Saturday (4.45pm, BBC2) as Ireland aim to show they can compete with a star-studded team going for a seventh consecutive Six Nations title, who thrashed them 88-10 in Twickenham last April.
Ireland props Niamh O’Dowd and Linda Djougang leave the field against France
Niamh O’Dowd (front) won the interpro title with Leinster earlier this season
Ireland’s Niamh O’Dowd on the attack during Ireland’s loss to France in Belfast
Niamh O’Dowd takes the field ahead of Ireland’s record win over Italy in Parma
Niamh O’Dowd (centre) started nine matches for Celtic champions Wolfhounds (©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo)
