Improving Ireland eager to face daunting Black Fern challenge

Scott Bemand's Irish side have made strides this year and face a tough opening game when they take on New Zealand in the WXV1 in Canada.

BLACK FERNS CHALLENGE: Ireland face a tough first game in the WXV1 when they take on the Black Ferns. Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Go back 12 months and Scott Bemand was starting his spell as Ireland women’s head coach with a WXV3 tournament that produced blowout wins against Kazakhstan and Columbia and a nervy two-point win over Spain in the Middle East.

Well, what a difference a year makes.

The second edition of the new tournament kicks off this weekend and this time Ireland are in Vancouver and in the top-tier WXV1. First up are world champions New Zealand at 3am Irish time Sunday night/Monday morning, then third-ranked hosts Canada and the USA.

Ireland got there thanks to a much-improved showing in the Six Nations where they followed up a wooden spoon in 2023 with a third-place finish. That qualified them for next year’s World Cup as well as this elite company in North America.

The women’s XVs team still has a long way to go if Ireland are to return to the heights of a decade previously when they were winning Six Nations titles and reaching the semi-finals of a World Cup. The question is: have they gone too far too fast?

WX2, which is taking place over the same stretch of weeks in Cape Town, would appear to be a far better grade for an Irish squad still finding its way with teams involved there that are ranked from fifth (Scotland) to 12th (South Africa).

Bemand’s side did impress earlier this month when putting an Australian side ranked just above them in sixth to the sword on a scoreline of 36-10. That was in Belfast in a game that kicked off the IRFU’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The job of facing the Black Ferns is daunting.

Ireland showed real grit in holding France to a 38-17 win in Le Mans at the start of the Six Nations but lost 88-10 to England in Twickenham a month later. New Zealand are ranked second behind England but Aoife Dalton is adamant that this is the test they want.

“Definitely,” said the Offaly native and Leinster back. “That’s what we set out for, especially after this year’s Six Nations. We wanted to qualify and that’s what we did and we find ourselves here in WXV1. It’s where we want to be.” 

Ireland arrived on Canada’s west coast last Friday, earlier than most of the other teams. It has given them time to flush the jetlag and acclimatize to the area and to the task at hand at the impressive BC Place Stadium.

Facing France in a practice match in midweek was a major part of that.

“It is so valuable because when you are playing against each other you are aware of the special plays or what’s going to happen,” said No.8 Brittany Hogan. “Say with our lineouts, we know exactly what our moves are.

“So it is very easy to defend or attack against them. To play a team where you don’t know what they are doing, it was really invaluable to see if our moves were going to work or if we need to scrap some. Really valuable.”