Irish belief vs Kiwi beef: Ireland out to repeat famous win over New Zealand in Women's World Cup decider

BELIEF: Brittany Hogan looks ahead to Ireland's rematch with New Zealand. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

World Cups leave oceans of time to be filled.

There is only so much can be done Monday to Friday, especially with games coming thick and fast. Only so much gym work. Only so much opposition analysis. Only so many team meetings.

Some Ireland players spent their day off on Tuesday wandering through the vintage clothes stores in the more chic parts of Brighton. There are plans to visit the arcades and funfair before Sunday’s Pool C decider with New Zealand too.

More hours tick by in devouring the latest box set or documentary, but if anything has been appointment viewing in the team hotel this particular week then it must be last autumn’s WXV1 win against the Black Ferns in Vancouver.

It’s not that Scott Bemand’s squad has watched it together on a loop with bowls of popcorn, but highlights have been replayed to show momentum shifts, plays used that gave the team momentum, and work that curtailed the rhythm of the world champions that day.

“We've certainly looked through the last minute, played that a couple of times in the meeting room, but it’s a special memory and hopefully more to come,” said Brittany Hogan, one of 17 players in the current squad who featured in BC Place stadium then.

One image stands out from that end game for her: the final scrum in midfield. The Ireland pack knew what was coming. New Zealand had to get their hands on the ball and Ireland knew they had to lock it down.

“That moment and then Dannah [O’Brien] kicking it off, and just shock and then the changing-room afterwards.”

Dorothy Wall, the lock who featured that day but misses this World Cup with injury, captured the moment perfectly when mouthing the phrase ‘oh my god’ over and over again after the final whistle went.

Hogan’s first sevens cap back in in 2018/19 had come against New Zealand when she packed down against stars like Portia Woodman and Sarah Goss. That was cool. Beating players like that, players wearing that black jersey, was better again.

“It was just that awe versus belief,” said the Ulster No.8. “It was, ‘we have to make sure that we respect our opponent, but we don't disrespect ourselves in that time’. We had full belief in ourselves that we could come out with that result.”

That win fast-forwarded Ireland’s recovery and the team’s journey from a nadir of failing to make the 2022 World Cup, but the flip side this week, as the sides meet for the first time since, is that it has served to poke the bear.

So, we have Irish belief against Kiwi beef. Different vibes.

“We were more underdogs, we kind of had that, well, ‘we've got nothing to lose’ kind of factor,” said Hogan. “Now we've taken away the element of surprise. Now we just have to work that little bit harder, and those one percenters in the game mean a little bit more.”

There is no underplaying the job at hand in Brighton.

New Zealand have been buttressed by the influx of sevens stars since Vancouver. In 21-year old back row star Jorja Miller and 18-year old full-back Braxton Sorensen-McGee, there is the ebullience and fearlessness of youth and the class they bring with it.

Miller, in particular, has been a revelation since her switch from the shorter form of the game, even if the standard of opposition from Spain and Japan hasn’t been at a level that a team like Ireland, or England, will offer.

“In a world-class outfit, you're going to have a class back five and Jorja Miller is a really good example of a hybrid athlete, like the sevens/15s. She's shone here on the world stage, and that's where she belongs, she was unbelievable.”

There is no bravado or barbed message when Hogan talks about her excitement at going up against the likes of Miller on Sunday. And if anyone should be pumped for the opportunity then it is Hogan who has been superb for Ireland in England.

A starter on day one against Japan, she was expecting maybe a quarter or 30 minutes off the bench against Spain before Sam Monaghan went down with an early injury. No matter. The hour Hogan put in showed she was ready and able when and as required.

Bemand has tried to spread the load in Ireland’s opening two games, making seven changes to the starting side for the second game against Spain and a handful more on the bench, but this remains a squad dependent on a handful of key performers.

Hogan is one of those and her hard yards have spiked in the absence of Wall and Erin King for the tournament and, up to now, Aoife Wafer who was voted player of the Six Nations even as she was contemplating her time on the sidelines.

“My game has evolved in the last 12 months. I've been trying to put myself into a more of a ball-carrying role because that's just the way that my game has developed. It's become sort of a strength of mine that the team and the coaches like to utilise.

“So that comes hand in hand with Wafer. If I have to latch Wafer, no problem. I'll do that. She's an incredible athlete and incredible asset to our team. Whenever she's gone, if I have to have a couple more carries I will, but we are spreading that across the team pretty well.”