Oct 11,2024
2024 has been quite the story in Irish women's rugby. And for the first time in several years, that story has been a positive one.
This evening, Scott Bemand’s side will play their ninth and final game of the calendar year, with the opportunity to cap off a significant campaign on a real high.
To illustrate where they’ve come from and where they are going, we can look back on our preview of their opening Six Nations game against France in Le Mans in late March.
There was a sense of optimism that after the Six Nations wooden spoon in 2023, their subsequent WXV3 success would have provided the confidence boost from which they could build a new future.
"A year on from their painful 2023 championship, there’s hope for this group that they can begin a slow ascent," was what we wrote ahead of that game against the French just over six months ago.
While we were correct in saying there was an "ascent" coming in 2024, it’s been anything but slow.
Since losing the first two games of the championship to France and Scotland, Ireland have won four of their last six games, the only two defeats coming to the world’s top two ranked teams, England and Canada.
Third place in the Six Nations led to World Cup qualification and a place in WXV1, and even then there was a sense of "be careful what you wish for", with Wales being the cautionary tale in 2023.
The expectation was that Ireland would have to learn some hard lessons in their promotion to the top tier of WXV, but instead they’ve handed out one of their own.
Their win against New Zealand in their opening game in Vancouver has gone down as one of the biggest upsets the game has seen in recent years, and while they couldn’t repeat the trick against Canada on Saturday, it speaks volumes for how far they have come that a 13-point defeat against the world number two represents a missed opportunity.
Coming into 2024, Ireland were ranked tenth in the world, and could finish the year as high as fifth if they win against Scotland, and Scotland draw with Australia.
Only six months ago, qualifying for the World Cup was the stated target, and when the pool stage draw is made next Thursday, Ireland are guaranteed to be among the second seeds.
Of course, now that the results have improved, expectations grow accordingly.
On Wednesday night, Bemand and this week’s captain, Enya Breen, spoke of how opposition teams are standing up and taking notice of Ireland’s improvement.
"It’s huge for us," Breen (below) said.
"We’ve backed ourselves the whole way along. We take lumps out of each other in training every week and we know we’re moving in the right direction.
"We’ve had full belief in ourselves the whole way through this campaign. We knew we could put in performances, and we knew we were capable of winning performances, but just putting those out on the pitch at the weekend, that was what mattered. Results were secondary, as long as we could put in what we felt was a good performance."
Coming into the tournament, tonight’s final game against the USA looked on paper to be the most winnable fixture of the three, before the thrilling 29-27 victory over the Black Ferns flipped the narrative.
Ireland are now two places ahead of the Americans in the world rankings, and slight favourites to pick up their second win of the WXV, which could potentially see them finish second overall if other results fall their way.
"Focusing on this week, USA have been in the game against England and France at 30 minutes," Bemand said of their opponents, who lost 61-21 to England and 22-14 against France.
"England hit them with two quick scores, which at half time is a two-score lead, but we’re coming up against teams with athletic capability now. We’re going to have to work hard to break teams down.
"In the same way that we’re earning respect from Tier 1 nations, they know they will have to produce performances to wear us down. We’ve not sat back and gone 'We’re alright with this,’ we’re sitting back and going, ‘What’s the next step, what’s the next layer?’
"We’ve got to bring a little bit of the shape of the game we try to play. We said we want to be hard to beat, now we want to get more and more shots out there. Where and how we do that may vary between who we play against, but we’re certainly in a position where I feel we have the tools to do that now."
With the core of the current squad still quite young, the short-term growth hasn’t come through remortgaging the future. The average age of the starting XV that defeated New Zealand was 25, and contained just two players in their 30s, captain Edel McMahon and Eimear Considine.
Three of that starting team – Aoife Wafer, Aoife Dalton and Dannah O’Brien - are still just 21-years-old, while Beibhinn Parsons (23), Aoibheann Reilly (23) and Katie Corrigan (19) would all likely have featured had it not been for injury.
Looking ahead to next year's World Cup, this campaign has been valuable for building squad depth. Injuries to senior players like Sam Monaghan, Edel McMahon and Christy Haney have given greater exposure to Fiona Tuite, Niamh O’Dowd and Erin King, the latter of whom is still just 20-years-old and scored two tries off the bench in the win against New Zealand.
King (below) continued to impress in a starting role last week against Canada, in the absence of the injured McMahon, and Bemand believes the Ireland Sevens international has an incredibly high ceiling, despite her inexperience in the 15-a-side game.
"Erin’s a firecracker. She brings loads of energy to everything she does, whether it’s on-pitch or off-pitch she’s superb.
"She’s still pretty raw around how much fifteens she’s played coming into this, but she’s growing every session we do. Every single session there’s another level of detail she adds to her game, without it taking away from her instinctive best.
"We’ve said we’re going to be an Irish women’s group, sevens and fifteens, we’re going to be able to pick the best players out there, and she’s added an immense amount."
For the final game of 2024, Bemand has made three changes, as Dalton and Neve Jones both come back into the side, while Nicole Fowley gets a start ahead of Dannah O'Brien.
Meanwhile, USA head coach Sione Fukofuka has made just one change to his side after the eight-point defeat to France last weekend, with Cass Bargell replacing Taina Tukuafu at scrum-half in a starting team that contains 12 players based in the English Premiership.
2024 has been a good year for the Irish women’s game. Eighty more minutes of rugby could be the difference between good and great.
Verdict: Ireland
Ireland: Stacey Flood; Eimear Considine, Enya Breen (capt), Aoife Dalton, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe; Nicole Fowley, Emily Lane; Niamh O'Dowd, Neve Jones, Linda Djougang; Dorothy Wall, Fiona Tuite; Erin King, Aoife Wafer, Brittany Hogan.
Replacements: Clíodhna Moloney, Siobhán McCarthy, Andrea Stock, Ruth Campbell, Deirbhile Nic a Bháird, Molly Scuffil-McCabe, Dannah O'Brien, Eve Higgins.
USA: Bulou Mataitoga; Cheta Emba, Alev Kelter, Gabby Cantorna, Lotte Shrp; McKenzie Hawkins, Cass Bargell; Hope Rogers, Kathryn Treder, Charli Jacoby; Erica Jarrell, Hallie Taufoou; Tahlia Brody, Kate Zackary (capt), Rachel Johnson.
Replacements: Paige Stathopolous, Maya Learned, Mae Sagapolu, Rachel Ehrecke, Tessa Hann, Taina Tukuafu, Emily Henrich, Tess Feury
