Rugby World Cup heartbreak so raw for Ireland’s Stacey Flood

Flood's focus now is next month’s games against the USA and Japan in the RDS but the magnitude of last month’s failure demands more airtime as the IRFU goes about a review

At the launch of the new Ireland jerseys on sale now from Elverys.ie, in store, or on Canterbury.com were Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (centre), Eve Higgins (right), and Stacey Flood (left). Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

It’s already been just over a month but Stacey Flood admits Ireland’s failure to make it through the recent qualifying tournament in Italy and to next year’s World Cup in New Zealand is still something of an open wound.

“It’s not something you just get over in a day or two,” said the out-half at the launch of Canterbury’s new Ireland home and away jerseys.

“You kind of have to live with it, and it’ll be even harder next year when the tournament is on. It’s pretty raw.”

Her focus now is next month’s games against the USA and Japan in the RDS but the magnitude of last month’s failure demands more airtime as the IRFU goes about facilitating what it has said will be an entirely independent review.

Flood said after the opening loss to Spain last month that rustiness was not a factor, despite the decision to pull the internationals from the interpros, and she finds herself now lamenting the inability to take advantage of the opportunities created in September.

The prep she can’t fault at all. Flood felt they were ready.

Former Ireland women’s coach Philip Doyle, the man in charge when the team was beating New Zealand at an actual World Cup and winning a Grand Slam, agrees that resources are not the issue here.

Doyle’s take is that they are being misdirected and he has called for the 15s and sevens games to be separated. Flood, one of half-a-dozen, sevens players on duty in Parma last month, holds a different view.

“For me and the players that have crossed over, it would be great if we could have more game-time but Covid didn’t allow that. I don’t think you could fault us in our transition over.

“We had over a year with the squad before those World Cup qualifiers. I wouldn’t really see that as a factor of why we won or lost. I don’t think it has anything to do with us being sevens and 15s players, to be honest. It’s quite seamless.

“Everyone in the background and us as players think that we’re more than capable and our coaches really believe in us. We are more than capable of doing more than both. Hopefully we can get more game time in these Six Nations because game time for any player, not just sevens or 15, the more you get of that the better you are going to be.”

Flood may or may not be in Dubai next month for another sevens tournament but she has been named in the 15s panel for next month’s Tests which will be the last under the watch of Adam Griggs.

His replacement is Greg McWilliams who was part of Doyle’s coaching group back in the day.

It is Griggs who facilitated Flood’s move over to 15s but she has heard positive things about his successor.

“I’ve never worked with him before, but obviously he’s been involved in previous World Cups and the girls have performed well at them. I know he’s very tactically minded — so I’ve heard anyway — and his rugby CV is quite extensive, which is really good.”

Griggs has named a 33-player squad. Six of them are uncapped.

Ireland squa d: Forwards (18): L Peat, L Feely, K O’Dwyer, C Pearse, L Djougang, L Lyons, M Healy, N Jones, C Moloney, N Fryday, A McDermott, S Monaghan, G Browne Moran, C Griffin (cpt), A Caplice, H O’Connor, E McMahon, M Og O’Leary.

Backs (15): K Dane, A Hughes, S Flood, E Breen, S Naoupu, E Higgins, S Touhey, A McInerny, E Considine, A Doyle, L Sheehan, L Delany, E Roberts, B Parsons, AL Murphy Crowe.