Relaxed Neve Jones savouring every World Cup moment

Hooker Neve Jones epitomises the positivity in Scott Bemand's Ireland camp

Neve Jones at Ireland training in Towcestrians Sports Club, Northampton. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

Spend any time with this Ireland squad and it quickly becomes clear how settled they are. Even allowing for putting on a brave face in front of the press, positivity is the order of the day no matter who has a microphone thrust in front of them.

Winning certainly helps. A 42-14 win over Japan leaves Ireland staring at a guaranteed quarter-final berth should they repeat the dose this weekend against Spain. In team environments at World Cups, where teams are cooped up in each other’s company for extended periods of time, it can sometimes spiral relatively quickly if things start to go wrong.

For now, though, Scott Bemand and his coaching staff appear to have done a stellar job at keeping this group entertained off the pitch and performing on it. They celebrated their victory on Sunday accordingly, even welcoming injured teammate Dorothy Wall - absent from this tournament thanks to a serious knee injury - into the changing room post match.

“Seeing Doro at the weekend was fantastic and we're all buzzing to see her,” explained Ireland hooker Neve Jones. “Big hugs for her all round, and I think she's down for the New Zealand game so we're going to try have a proper catch-up then.

“It was a great buzz, we're more than just the 32 who are here, and it's pretty exciting to see.

“[Sunday’s win] was really cool. It's what we all worked towards. We train hard, we want to be in the tough times together, but also the good times together, making sure we relish those times.” 

One of the men leading the positivity charge is assistant coach Alex Codling. Jones, as one of the squad’s hookers, has worked extensively with him on Ireland’s lineout in recent months. Whatever about his expertise, the one-time England secondrow, who will move on a full-time basis to Munster at the end of this World Cup, appears to be remarkably popular within this Irish group.

“He's quality, I’ve never met someone that knows a lineout so inside out as Alex,” says Jones.

“He's a great coach, he's a great guy to have around camp for just casual conversations. If you want to pick up on lineouts, he's really got it all. He's going to be a huge loss for us and we'll definitely take everything he's shown us over the last 12 or 18 months for the rest of our lives.

“His brain works in a very, very cool way. His knowledge is unbelievable and he has every answer when it comes to the lineout."

With Jones throwing, Ireland’s set-piece started strongly against Japan. An early maul try, Jones herself the beneficiary, was the highlight as a number of other set moves created opportunities. Jones deflected praise for her score - “Give credit to the women in front of me, I just lie down on the tryline!” - while acknowledging that four lost throws over the course of the day allows for improvement.

“It started off really strong and just fixing the few tweaks, whether it was the throw, the jump, the lift,” explains Jones. “It could be any of those things, it was just about having those conversations on the pitch so we could get it back to where we wanted it to be. That worked and the lineout got progressively better as the game went on.

“I think we know where we want to get to and we know the past couple of weeks that we've built into it nicely and trained really hard, It's just being able to put on those performances and having the detail right when it comes to game day.

“We're waiting for the weekend to come around, but also savour every moment and not letting it get past us. World Cups happen every four years and it's been a while since we've been in it.

“So it's just making sure we savour every moment, but also when it comes to the weekend, we're ready to fire and all of the hard work is done and we can enjoy it and play with flair.”