Irish Examiner view: Success that depends on the 'big girls going well'
Head coach Scott Bemand speaks to his players in a huddle during an Ireland Women's Rugby squad training session at Towcestrians Sports Club in Towcester, England. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Rugby is a simple game, observed a women’s Rugby World Cup-winning captain this week, “if the big girls go well and the half-backs control the game.”
That beguiling and straightforward recipe for international success will be put to the test for the next six weekends at eight grounds across England when the women’s game achieves an enthralling and high-profile platform in the 10th World Cup since the United States won the first tournament in 1991.
Some 375,000 tickets have already been purchased from the 400,000 available with prices ranging from as little as €6 for children to €110 for the sell-out final at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on September 27. 60% of the tickets have been priced at under €30 for adults.
Friday’s opening match, between England and the USA, took place at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland and even this had an Irish connection.
New Zealander John Mitchell, head coach of the Red Roses, played in the back row for Garryowen some 35 years ago before a spell in the mid-90s as technical adviser/forwards coach for Ireland men.
Ireland’s tournament commences on Sunday at Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton with a noon kick-off against Japan, followed by a meeting with Spain the following Sunday.
These matches will provide an appetiser for the crunch Pool C encounter with serial winners New Zealand on September 7 at 2.45pm.
The Black Ferns, who have been crowned champions on six occasions, were stunned last September when Ireland defeated them 29-27 with a last minute try and conversion in Vancouver.
The Green Wave, currently at number 5 in the world rankings, have previous form over the Kiwis in tournaments with a famous victory in the southern suburbs of Paris in the French World Cup of 2014.
Nearly 10,000 women and girls play rugby in the Republic and World Cup 25 is seen as an important waymarker in the development of the game which will accelerate enthusiasm and support, just as growth in women’s football has taken off in recent years.
As reported in the sports pages this week there is excited talk about connecting with “a whole new fanbase” via “a generational moment.”
The USA’s Ilona Maher, who plays for Bristol Bears, has 8.7m social followers and is the most followed women’s rugby player on Instagram.
While Australian men’s rugby has been in the doldrums, the Wallaroos’ social footprint is up 985% in 18 months.
Defender is the principal commercial partner of the tournament and the Irish team, which is drawn from 19 counties, are heavily promoted on billboards and multi-media advertisements, another sign of a sport that is going mainstream.
That progress and profile will only be enhanced if Ireland can reach the semi-finals in London It is exciting times without a doubt.
A world record-breaking 81,000 crowd will be at the final, surpassing the 66,000 who attended the Olympic Sevens medals matches in Paris last year. The last time England hosted the competition, in 2010, the highest attendance was 13,000.
Gill Whitehead, chair of Rugby World Cup 2025, said: “I started playing women’s rugby 30 years ago and the prospect of girls running out of the tunnel, playing to the three tiers of Allianz packed to the rafters is something perhaps I never thought I would see. It’s certainly what girls’ dreams are made of.”
Dreams can come true and we wish all the teams, but particularly Ireland, well.
And the broader objective, of moving women’s rugby more into the mainstream is something everyone can support.
It would be natural this morning for Ireland’s politically significant pharma industries to heave a collective sigh of relief.
“15% tariffs? Could be worse. We can live with that,” might be the collective judgement in the executive offices of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, and wherever Irish families depend on the continuing success of enterprises which employ upwards of 50,000 people in the Republic.
As the dust settles, for a while anyway, on the vexed question of trading levies, we face two escalating world crises over which we have no control or influence.
One is Gaza. The other is Ukraine, with its potential to wholly destabilise Europe producing consequences from which Ireland will not be inviolate.
US president Donald Trump aspires to a Nobel Peace Prize.
To achieve this, he has hit upon a recklessly novel plan: Firing all the experts with the experience and inside track who might help him to do so.
Ending the Russian invasion, parleying with Vladimir Putin, and finding a way out of the most severe foreign policy crisis for nearly 90 years will require considerable expertise and ringcraft.
There is little indication that the Trump team possesses this, indicated by the president’s deluded off-mic comment to Emmanuel Macron: “I think he wants to make a deal for me ... as crazy as it sounds.”
In his magisterial analysis of Adolf Hitler, the historian Ian Kershaw identified the dictator’s habit of appointing acolytes dedicated to “working towards the fuhrer”.
Trump has surrounded himself with people who carry out his wishes, as opposed to providing robust independent advice for the president.
The parallels with the years just before the Second World War do not end with the current echoes of the Munich crisis.
The contradictions which can prevail in rural life, often seen as idyllic but frequently bringing challenges of its own, were foregrounded in several separate reports in the Irish Examiner this week.
In the area of Duhallow near the borders of Limerick, Kerry, and Cork, concerns about social isolation — particularly among older farmers — are so pronounced the Wellbeing and Recovery College is being launched by a charitable development company to assist with mental health issues.
The region is classified by the EU as “disadvantaged”, and problems are exacerbated by significant changes in agricultural practice and the increasing loss of pubs in many locations.
Shane McHugh, a rural community health worker with IRD Duhallow, said individuals can live some distance away from services and, with the closure of local bars, there is no community meeting point — particularly for older men.
“Farming has also changed,” Mr McHugh added.
“More people are getting out of it, and the average age of farmers is going up all the time. Farmers had the back-up of neighbours before if a tractor broke down.
"Tractors are more complicated now, and need specialists to fix them, so they don’t have the same interaction with their neighbours.”
IRD’s plan is to hold regular walk-in clinics where experiences can be shared and support provided, including from medical professionals specialising in mental health.
Such initiatives are important and serve to remind us that the quality of life in the country often depends on the good nature and support of our neighbours, a community spirit to which we should all be prepared to contribute.
We see it in Saturday’s edition, in Manon Gilbart’s report of how the people of Kilteely in Limerick banded together to raise €300,000, saving their last pub.
“You never know what you have until you lose it,” said one of the investors, Niall O’Dowd.
“When it’s lost, you realise: ‘Wow, we should have kept this.’ And we found it just in time.”
We were reminded of this community spirit also when the latest news emerged this week of the progress of the fundraising efforts to support 13-year-old Féile O’Sullivan, who lost both legs in a farming accident in Allihies nearly two months ago.
More than €546,000 has now been raised for Féile, who had two more surgical procedures this week at Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin.
She counts each operation as helping her take one step closer to home, the committee supporting her family said.
The Stand for Féile campaign continues on GoFundMe, with events and online video call-outs coming in from around the world.
This weekend, a vintage 1972-era combine harvester will work a field of oats near Allihies. The oats are being auctioned for the campaign.
A vintage tractor run is also part of the event.
Féile’s mother Maureen, a teacher and Gaelic football coach who played football with Cork minors as well as Bantry Bay rugby club, has been overwhelmed by the support.
She has been staying at her daughter’s bedside in Dublin.
In a poem, she wrote to everyone: “We’ll carry your kindness every day, in each small step along our way.” In increasingly difficult times, every considerate act counts.
Thinking globally has to start locally.
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