Cliodhna Moloney: Stacey Flood's absence will be keenly felt against the might of England

The Irish secured a much needed victory against Italy at Musgrave Park but the loss of our Sevens players will be a huge blow for the meeting with the English

Ireland's Stacey Flood in action in the win over Italy at Musgrave Park on Sunday evening. ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Week on week, we are seeing improvements from Ireland.

We had an improvement in the penalty count last week and this week it was the set piece and the kicking game from Stacey Flood which led to an all-round improved team performance.

Our scrum and lineout was much better and the kicking for territory from Stacey meant Ireland at least were not playing in the wrong areas and couldn’t concede possession in the wrong parts of the pitch.

Italy will be angry with themselves.

They didn’t perform as well as they did against France in their first game. They are better with Rigoni at 10 - they started her at 12 but she brought them to the gainline more in the second half when she moved to her more natural position.

They put some nice phases together but turned over possession a lot through knock-ons or coughing it up in the ruck. Invariably they threw it away or knocked it on, which is characteristic of this Italian team.

You could clearly see the improvement in Ireland from their work with scrum coach John Fogarty since the France game last week. The height was better, and Edel (McMahon) was helping Linda (Djougang) by keeping her in a good position which led to one maul try, and they were unlucky not to have had a second.

Sam Monaghan deserved the player of the match award but Stacey Flood had to have been in the reckoning as well. 

Her kicking was excellent throughout and she had two turnovers in open play.

Aoibheann Reilly can speed the game up but Kathryn Dane is a steadier nine and she should start against England in two weeks time. Aoibheann has great potential but her game experience is not there yet - it will come with time.

Kathryn can get the game moving and give us composure and she set up a lovely try for Eve Higgins from a quick perfectly-weighted box kick.

Stacey Flood is better at 12 because she has more time on the ball and she delivered some nice passes to put Ireland's back three away. The referee controversially deemed Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe had been held in the tackle, when she got up and scored it was disallowed, but social media will tell you not many agreed with the official call. 

It should have been a six-try win for Ireland, the refereeing decisions overall in this game for both Italy and Ireland needed to be of a higher standard.

Looking forward, I hear Greg McWilliams wants the players to have some time at home over Easter, which is nice.

However I was at Kingsholm Park on Saturday for England v Wales and with all due respect, I think Ireland need as much time together as they can.

I do understand you have to strike a balance between time in camp and away from camp – especially when you have an amateur squad.

And it will be a strictly amateur squad by the time we get to England in a fortnight because the Sevens’ players will be gone.

Unfortunately that number will include Stacey Flood and if she isn’t there to control territory - and if Ireland can’t manage the exits - it could be a hard day at the office.

The whole back line, barring the half-backs, will basically be gone so it will be interesting to see who Ireland bring in.