'Sea change' in how Irish women's rugby team handle toughest Six Nations tests
TARGETING HOME WINS: Fiona Tuite during an Ireland Women's Rugby squad training session at the IRFU High Performance Centre. Picture: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Picture the scene. England’s world champions have just scored again. You’re standing under the Twickenham posts and staring down the barrel of a 28-0 deficit with 25 minutes still to play.
A crowd north of 77,000 is in party mode. They want more.
Ireland had been here before. Their previous visit to Rugby HQ ended with an 88-10 loss and now Scott Bemand’s side were proving to be the architects of their own downfall in this most thankless of Six Nations tasks.
Unforced errors had plagued any ambition to ask serious questions of a side playing for the first time since claiming that world title against Canada at the same venue back in September. Regrets? It was a question now of how many more Ireland might have.
Rugby is, famously, the most complicated of field sports. Its laws are myriad, intricate and, to some, bamboozling. It’s a game that speaks its own language. A game where a referee could penalise any number of infringements at every ruck.
It’s hard to pull together, basically, so imagine how it must feel on a day like last Saturday when everything that can go wrong is going wrong. How does a team gather itself amid the maelstrom of all that chaos and looming disaster?
"We stay connected,” said Tuite. “Our chat under the posts is very clear, we get clear comms from an attack leader, defence leader and our captain. We keep it really, really simple; like quick, easy fixes for us.
“I'll be honest, in front of the 77,000, if you stepped away from that circle at all, you couldn't hear a thing. So it was really important that we were really connected together in that group. And, yeah, it's a process.”
Tuite is only three years removed from her Test debut but she has witnessed a sea change in how the team handles these situations. It’s not so long since there would be ten voices chipping in all at once and any clarity or roadmap would be lost.
Ireland now carry a leadership group of six players with others feeding in to strategy groups. Some of the younger players add their voices to the collective as well, and the Monday review is par for the course in every dressing-room.
That’s all midweek, not mid-game when the messaging needs filtering.
That on-pitch process has been streamlined.
Erin King takes the lead as captain. The team assembles, gulps in a deep breath, and then the attack and defence leads speak. The coaches might send word in from the stands if they feel the need. That’s it. One or two pointers, one or two speakers, then go again.
The messages on Saturday were direct and to the point. Ireland needed more depth on the ball in attack. And their intent was lacking. There was just no front-foot ball as collision after collision was lost, and their breakdown work was off.
That was it.
If England were far from their best on the day, and Ireland’s first-half showing was an enormous disappointment and an opportunity lost, then there was something to be mined from their response in outscoring the hosts 12-5 in the final quarter.
“We do take confidence from the England game. That second half was really, really good.
"We take it game by game as well,” said Tuite. “We are targeting home wins and I think playing in Galway now is going to be class as well in the new stadium. It's phenomenal. It's gorgeous down there, it's fab.”
Tuite’s mum is from out past Oughterard to the west of the city and she has relations flying in from Boston and New York to take in the game against Italy at a venue where the new 8,000-seater Clan stand is already sold out.
Italy won on their last visit to Ireland, in 2024. Bemand is handing a debut to Robyn O’Connor on the wing and a start to the inexperienced Nancy McGillivray in the centre, but they will be surrounded by experience and talent.
The bench screams as much with Neve Jones, Niamh O'Dowd, Sadhbh McGrath, Dorothy Wall, the fit again Sam Monaghan, Eve Higgins and Anna McGann all ready to add the sort of impetus that the reserves managed in Twickenham last time out.
The message this week will be simpler again. Just win.
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