Ireland Women's rugby team arrive home with Six Nations trophy

By Cóilín Duffy

The Irish Women's rugby team touched down ahead of schedule around 9.30pm at Dublin Airport this evening with the Six Nations trophy, after their 73-3 win over Scotland this afternoon.

The victory, which was the biggest ever in the history of the competition, was greeted with tremendous support, as led by Irish captain Niamh Briggs, the Irish squad and management arrived on flight EY7868 from Glasgow to a heroine's welcome.

Hundreds of Irish supporters gathered at Terminal 2 after Irish Rugby’s most successful weekend ever.

Briggs said: “It’s great to see so many people out to support us on a Sunday night. We weren’t really expecting it. It’s been a great day and I’m sure we will enjoy it for a few weeks to come.”

The Waterford native was delighted to see some younger people at the airport to cheer on their heroines.

"When you look over there and you see a group of young girls six or seven years of age and what I means to them - that’s what matters to us,” she said.

“We need to start increasing the strength and depth of (women's) rugby in Ireland and we need to get young girls out playing it.”

Briggs won’t have too long to celebrate as the Limerick-based garda heads back to work this week.

“I think I’m supposed to be back to work on Wednesday,” she said.

“I’m sure that they will be good and I will have a few more days off now and that I can rest up my body.”

Laois native Alison Miller scored three tries in this 11-try victory.

She recalled an impressive day at the office for the Irish squad.

“It’s great for Irish rugby getting the double with the Men yesterday and the Women today," she said.

“We are ecstatic ourselves personally today. It was a great weekend of rugby - long, but it’s great to have won and bring home the Six Nations trophy.

”We were under pressure today to get a high score, but we have focussed on our own performance rather than chasing points, and thankfully the points came by putting in a good performance.

“That was our plan and we stuck to it well."

It was a magnificent end to the campaign, in his first season in charge for Irish Head Coach Tom Tierney.

“It obviously means everything - we got to work three months ago over Christmas and we put a plan in place to be as competitive as we could be and thankfully we have come out on top,” he said.

“Winning the Six Nations for the second time in three years is a huge achievement. It’s full credit to the girls, they applied themselves and it’s been absolutely fantastic."