History should teach Ireland to approach Spanish test with care

SPANISH TEST: Ireland have a worse record against Spain than they do against Japan or New Zealand. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Last Sunday’s opening Rugby World Cup win against Japan in Northampton leaves Ireland just 80 minutes shy of a quarter-final and the expectation is that they will secure passage from Pool C at the same venue this weekend.

In their way is a Spanish team that, at 13th in the world, is the lowest ranked of four nations that also includes New Zealand so it is only human nature if some of us are tempted to peer ahead to the meeting with the world champions.

But here’s the thing.

Ireland have a worse record against Spain than they do against Japan or New Zealand. The Black Ferns have been beaten two times in three meetings. The Sakura Fifteen have won just once in seven attempts against the girls in green.

Spain have been a tougher nut to crack with the teams sharing six wins apiece across a dozen meetings and a span of 28 years. Starting in 1997 when the ‘Lionesses’ kept Ireland scoreless and scored 27 points in Nice.

Five years later and Spain won 42-0 in Catalonia in a rivalry that has swung both ways. By 2008 Ireland were registering a 41-7 victory in Amsterdam, but the one that always stands out is Parma – another neutral venue – four years ago.

The subsequent, last-ditch defeat to Scotland at the same ground, is the one that people remember most, as that was the moment that World Cup qualification slipped from the grasp of a side coached at the time by Adam Griggs.

But it was Spain that had put Ireland back on the ropes in the first place with their shock 8-7 win at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi. Eleven of the Irish squad currently on duty at this tournament in England played some part on that dark day.

The group has moved on since. Scott Bemand has replaced Greg McWilliams who, in turn, took over from Griggs. Great servants such as Ciara Griffin, Nicola Fryday and Sene Naoupu have retired and the wider backdrop has altered completely.

The letter to government by current and former players that castigated the IRFU’s handling of the women’s game prompted a sea change in attitudes and a greater commitment on the part of the union with full-time XVs contracts belatedly becoming the order of the day.

Ireland are now one of the haves rather than the have nots, a fact reinforced by their palatial digs in the English countryside at the moment while Brazil, for instance, have been making do with somewhat less salubrious surrounds in Northampton.

If the team and the women’s game has moved on from those all-too-recent lows then it’s not outlandish to think that unwanted memories will still frame some of the week that is in it as Ireland and Spain go at it for a 13th time.

Co-captain Edel McMahon, who played in Parma, admits as much.

“Acknowledging the past and what’s gone before has been part of the growth of the squad, and how we’ve gone after the cultural element, because things haven’t been all rosy in an Irish camp in the last couple of years, and [it’s about] how we address what the emotions are.

“Things unsaid are what can be a danger to the squad so anything that’s creeping in, whether it’s nerves, addressing the fact that this is our first campaign in a World Cup, what the past has been like for us… It’s tackling those as a squad that kind of showed through in how we’ve gone after things.”

The two teams have met since that 8-7.

That was in the WXV3 tournament in Dubai 22 months ago when the Irish trailed 13-3 at the break, having lost McMahon and then Linda Djougang to the sinbin, but won 15-13 after taking the lead for the first time with eight minutes to play.

In a way, this may be the more meaningful meeting given Ireland went to the Middle East at that point having gone a year without a victory and then hammered Kazakhstan and Colombia before the two-point win against these next opponents.

It was also Bemand’s first competitive experience with the squad as head coach. Ireland are in a very different head space now, but the spectre of Parma should prompt them to tread carefully and save thoughts of New Zealand for another day.