Linda Djougang: 'We're not going into this World Cup as underdogs'

WORLD CUP: Debunking outdated ideas ahead of the World Cup: Rugby's Linda Djougang and Specsavers are busting common contact lens myths, encouraging more sportswomen to embrace the clear vision and comfort contact lenses provide, especially during high intensity play. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

The mindset that underpinned Irish sport and Irish sportspeople has changed. The underdog tag that this nation wore as a comfort zone on the biggest of stages has been cast to the side and the women’s rugby team will be no different in the coming weeks.

It’s less than four years since the national team failed to make the last World Cup, defeat to Spain and Scotland in a qualifying tournament in Parma consigning them to the role of onlookers from afar when the tournament kicked off in New Zealand a year later.

Go back just two years and Ireland finished bottom of the Six Nations, stuck with the wooden spoon, after losing all five matches. The curve has turned upwards since, though, and Linda Djougang isn’t interested in playing down what it is can be achieved.

“We were the underdog going into Tier 1 in Vancouver in the WXV1 when we qualified for the Rugby World Cup after beating Scotland last year and we went to Vancouver,” said the veteran prop on Tuesday. ”A lot of people believed that.

“People saw that we were kind of worried going and playing against the likes of New Zealand, Canada and USA, top-tier teams, but we came second. No-one thought that [would happen]. People saw us then as underdogs but the fact [is] that we beat the world champions.

“In top-tier one we came from 10th in the world to fifth so we have lost that underdog title. We don’t want to be underdogs. We want every team to know that. Respect us because we’ve shown what we are capable of. We definitely won’t be going into this World Cup as underdogs.” 

Performances in recent years mean that Ireland will certainly be respected but the warm-up loss to a number-two ranked Canada in Belfast last Saturday was a reminder of the journey still to go before this squad reaches its full potential.

Head coach Scott Bemand admitted last month that the team is further along in its development now than he had expected, a reference no doubt to the fact that the make-up of the collective is still relatively inexperienced.

The days of teamsheets sprinkled with players yet to earn a double-digit figure of caps are gone but Ireland are still raw. Djougang, with 48 appearances, is far and away the most experienced player travelling to England later this month.

This is something that people regularly say to her but she will respond by pointing out that the likes of Dannah O’Brien, Aoife Dalton and Niamh O’Dowd are players with the sort of mentality that can belie such statistics.

“Last year in Vancouver really opened our eyes, where we played the likes of New Zealand and were able to beat them. We had less caps then. Now we definitely have grown and gained even more experience.

“It just shows the players sometimes have to forget about the caps. It’s more about our mindset and ability to focus on what’s in front of us.” 

A theatre nurse who has taken a career break to focus on this World Cup shot, Djougang is one of 10 in the current squad who featured that day in Parma in 2021 when they fell short of Scotland and a place at the global gig.

The change in the squad since has been seismic.

Torrents of players have been ushered in as a steady stream of big-name and big-game players exited the building. Among those to move on since are Eimear Considine, Sene Naoupu, Lindsay Peat, Nichola Fryday, Ciara Griffin and Claire Molloy.

All bar Fryday did at least retire having played at a previous World Cup and theirs is a legacy that Djougang is eager to build on now that the women’s team has turned a corner and looks to ensure that the disaster that was 2021 never happens again.

“So we definitely want to go to the World Cup and perform to our best ability and leave the jersey in a better place,” she explained, “so that the future generations don't have to go through the same thing.” 

As for those ten ‘survivors’, that torment does at least bring with an appreciation of the distance they have all travelled in the years since and Djougang can’t help but think back even further when summing up what this all means.

She was 21 and still a few years away from her Ireland debut when she watched Ireland and Wales fight for seventh place before England took on New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup final in Belfast and thought that this was the stage she wanted to grace.

And now she’s made it.

“It just makes it a little bit more extra special.”