Ireland excited by England challenge in front of big Twickenham crowd

EXCITED: Edel McMahon in training. Pic Credit: Ben Brady, Inpho.

Ireland may be looking to make up for lost ground on the Test stage but Scott Bemand’s side will visit new territory this Saturday when they take on England in front of a huge Twickenham crowd.

Reports from across the water earlier this week had it that 45,000 tickets or so had been snapped up for the Six Nations game.

Ticket prices of £20 for adults and £5 for children are no doubt helping in that regard.

“People are very excited by it,” said Ireland co-captain Edel McMahon. “It's exciting for women's rugby.”

McMahon has played in Twickenham before. She is one of three survivors from the Ireland team that lost 37-15 at RFU HQ in November of 2018 – Beibhinn Parsons and Lauren Delany are the others - in a game held after the England’s men’s side.

The recorded crowd for England’s defeat of Australia – the Eddie Jones derby - came in at 81,275. The estimate is that maybe 10,000 of those stuck around to watch the women’s game. Things have moved on a bit since.

A crowd of 42,579 took in England’s World Cup final defeat to New Zealand in Eden Park in 2021 and that was smashed as a world record last spring when England beat France 38-33 in front of 58,498 people at Twickenham to claim another Grand Slam.

These are massive numbers in the women’s game.

Ireland have played to crowds of just over 6,000 people for both Six Nations home games so far. The 6,605 that watched the loss to Italy at the RDS was an Irish record.

Away games against England and France usually attract crowds in the high teens in terms of thousands.

Ireland have already entered one bear pit and emerged from Le Mans in round one with a very credible 38-17 loss to France so a still inexperienced side will be leaning into that experience this weekend.

“We're looking back at how we prepped for the France week and that volume of crowd,” said McMahon.

“We've already started raising the volume at training, particularly for those lineouts and setpiece where communication will be key for us.”

Dealing with the crowd will be only part of the challenge and not the main thrust of it either.

England have steamrolled their way through this Championship in their usual style. Italy and Scotland failed to score a point against them, Wales managed two tries but still fell to a heavy defeat. Only France look like they have a shot at troubling them.

Bemand had made the noises expected of an underdog coach. He has called for his team to fire some shots but they will be busier putting fires out come 2.15 on Saturday afternoon. That’s just fact.

“We’ve already started having conversations about key strengths or weaknesses that we can spot in individuals in that team and going after them.

"In fairness, a lot of the girls are very aware actually from watching Premiership games themselves.

“There’s again an element of familiarity, similar to the Welsh game, that we can go after,” said McMahon who plays her club rugby with Exeter Chiefs.

“Like I said, people are actually relishing this challenge.” So they should.

This weekend poses a very different challenge to the Welsh in Cork last time out but banking that a first Six Nations win since 2022 entitles Ireland’s players to approach this with some gusto.

“The weeks have been quite good, and players have been quite confident. That's just given us an extra boost, knowing that we've executed the game plan well and gone after it and the result looked after itself.

"Heading onto England, people are excited to have a crack at them.”