Scott Bemand sets challenge for his Irish side ahead of Black Ferns clash

NEW CHALLENGE: Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has set his Ireland team a new challenge as they turn their focus towards defending champions New Zealand next Sunday: to start firing more shots, more consistently against the main Women’s World Cup contenders. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Scott Bemand has set his Ireland team a new challenge as they turn their focus towards defending champions New Zealand next Sunday: to start firing more shots, more consistently against the main Women’s World Cup contenders.

The head coach has seen his team knock off the Black Ferns already during his tenure, when Ireland defeated them in Vancouver during the 2023 WXV1 campaign. Yet following qualification for the quarter-finals following a 43-27 victory over Pool C rivals Spain at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday he wants to see Ireland now test the tournament’s big four, also including hosts and world number one-ranked England, France and Canada, by providing more meaningful contests as his squad continues to develop.

A change of scenery after three weeks training and playing in the English midlands will see Ireland head to the south coast and a date with New Zealand in their final pool game in Brighton this weekend offers the perfect opportunity to challenge his players in that regard as they bid to top the group and Bemand acknowledged Ireland’s World Cup campaign will ramp up from here with a potential last-eight knockout clash against either the French or Italy following on at Exeter’s Sandy Park a week later.

“The longer you go in this competition each game, the media, the fan base, everything magnifies,” the Ireland boss said.

“That's exactly where we want to be. We've got our two wins, we've got two bonus-point wins, all roads lead to Brighton now, and we want to go and challenge a World Cup contender.

“We had a good crack at it in the second half against Canada (in a pre-tournament friendly last month). We've had Six Nations where we made England work for 50 minutes. We had 70 minutes against France.

“Part of our growth is we want we want to fire more shots. We want to take these games deeper against the World Cup contenders. So this will be a massive game for us just in terms of continuing momentum.”