England still in charge of Women's Six Nations but are Ireland closing the gap?
MIND THE GAP: Ireland's Anna McGann scores her sides first try of the match despite England's Claudia MacDonald. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo.
Strange to imagine an Ireland team taking away as many positives as disappointments following an opening round defeat away from home in the Women’s Six Nations but context, of course, is everything.
Saturday’s showpiece at a near sold-out and sunny Twickenham was the grandest of settings as world number one England returned to the scene of their World Cup final triumph of seven months ago and wrapped up a bonus-point victory to extend their winning run to 34 matches.
It was a far from stellar performance from John Mitchell’s all-conquering side, who had exploited Irish rustiness to open up a 21-0 lead by the interval which should have been more but for a failed grounding over the tryline by Ellie Kildunnne.
It was a day of celebration for the majority of the championship-record 77,120 crowd who delighted in two more tries, from wing Jess Breach, who brought up the try bonus on 54 minutes, and their favourite Kildunne, the full-back atoning for her first-half blunder with a sharp finish.
Yet the Irish among them also had reasons to cheer as their team matched their hosts point for point after the break, through tries from replacement wing Anna McGann and captain Erin King, with Dannah O’Brien adding a conversion.
Ireland had found no answer to England’s maul power in the opening 40 minutes as hooker Amy Cokayne and prop Sarah Bern, with two, all three converted by Helena Rowland, but they returned the compliment on 63 minutes with an equally impressive lineout drive to set up McGann in the corner to finally put points on the board.
And with the set-piece also gathering momentum, not least when replacement prop Eilis Cahill capped her Test debut with a scrum penalty at her first engagement, there was also a smartly executed tap penalty move as the Irish pack powered up with flanker King providing the finish with an acrobatic leap in the 73rd minute.
So there were good reasons to take satisfaction from a fixture which had been anything but pleasurable two years earlier on their previous visit to Twickenham when Scott Bemand’s team were hammered 88-10.
“Loads of positives,” King said. “Obviously disappointed to lose there but can take loads of learnings from that. Just slight fixes, and it's kind of positive it’s only slight things that we have to change.
“And then we showed what we can do in that second half, probably just starting a little bit faster and being a little bit more physical in that first half.
“Loads of learnings going into these next four weeks that are going to be really big for us. We've kind of set the standard there and we're just going to keep growing and growing.”
England remain the benchmark in women’s international rugby, and Saturday’s win underlined their favouritism to land an eighth Six Nations title in a row. Ireland’s strong finish, however, suggests the gap is closing, and with their most difficult challenge now behind them they can turn into the rest of this championship with confidence, starting this Saturday with round-two clash against Italy in Galway.
Round three sees Ireland embark on a revenge mission to Clermont Auvergne’s Stade Marcel-Michelin to take on France in a rematch of that narrow and controversial World Cup quarter-final defeat in Exeter last September 14 before two more home matches to close out the campaign, against Wales at Affidea Stadium in Belfast and a first standalone game at Aviva Stadium for Ireland’s Women against Scotland.
This Saturday breaks new ground as Bemand’s team heads to Connacht’s newly redeveloped Dexcom Stadium, with the head coach reporting expectations of a full 6,555-capacity Clan Stand, a further sign of the growing belief in Ireland’s upward trajectory.
“It's class. My understanding is that the (new stand) is sold out. So it's growing. The wave is growing. People's interest is growing.
“We said a couple of years ago, part of our responsibility is to put a product out there. A: results are really important but a way of playing something that the Irish people can really identify with. And Erin being named as captain is a big part of that. She embodies what we want the Ireland women's player to look like.
“We want them to be competitive as hell. We want them to get moments, big moments. Enjoy going into battle with your mates left and right of you.”
Bemand added: “I don't think this is a group that is interested in just turning up for occasions. We know next week's going to be a tough game. The Italians are tough. They're well coached. We had a really good away result to them last year. And it's really important to build your momentum. The first thing is being hard to beat and win your home games.”
E Kildunne; J Breach, M Jones (capt), H Rowland, Claudia Moloney-MacDonald; H Aitchison (Z Harrison, 51), L Packer (N Hunt, 51 - E Sing, 65); K Clifford (M Carson, 51), A Cokayne (C Powell, 69), S Bern (M Muir, 51), M Talling (H Lutui, 43), L Ives Campion; M Feaunati (A Burton, 10-20 HIA & 69), S Kabeya, A Matthews.
S Flood; B Parsons (A McGann, 60), A Dalton, E Higgins (G McGillivray, 50), V Elmes Kinlan; D O’Brien, E Lane (K Whelan, 69); E Perry (N O’Dowd, 50), Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald (N Jones, 60), L Djougang (E Cahill, 69); D Wall (R Campbell, 50), F Tuite; B Hogan, E King (capt), A Wafer (G Moore, 62).
: Clara Munarini (Italy)
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