Bemand seeks to keep momentum despite Ireland blip
Ireland head coach Scott Bemand speaks to players after the WXV Global Series match between Ireland and USA. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Ireland's first blip in the Scott Bemand era is how the head coach himself views his team's surprise crumbling from a position of strength on the scoreboard at Tallaght Stadium.
At the same time, Bemand is adamant that Ireland's defeat in their Global Series opener to a USA side that trailed 17-0 after the first quarter and then 31-12 until the 57th minute will not leave any permanent damage.
This was certainly Ireland's worst home defeat since their six-point loss to Italy in the 2024 Six Nations, which was the 47-year-old's first championship in the role.
Since then, the green wave has been on an upward curve, with narrow defeats to France in the last two Six Nations and in last year's World Cup finals underlining the progress made under the former England attack coach.
Speaking ahead of Ireland's Global Series opener, Bemand said that Ireland had to embrace the favourites tag that they would be labelled with over the course of this five-Test window.
Instead, they will head to the Dexcom Stadium in Galway next Sunday with plenty of points to prove against Japan.
"I think we played like the favourites to start with," he said, after watching his side concede 28 unanswered points in 15 minutes in the second half, a total that included three converted tries while Vicky Elms Kinlan was in the sin-bin, to hand the initiative to the USA.
"I thought we came out of the blocks. We talked about getting a fast start, I thought we thought we did that. I think there's a relentless piece...if you look at our last game before this at the Aviva (against Scotland), we go into a lead, second half, we finished at 5-5 when we were nearly 50 points up.
"There’s a piece around how we keep momentum going and don’t breathe out.
"Think about where we are in terms of the story that we’re writing. Three years ago, we weren’t talking about tries - it’s not to keep going back to that, but we’re scoring tries now. We’ve put points on the board.
"What we’ve got to do is keep learning how to be that ruthless mindset so that when you get close to the line, you take more points. Understanding that when you’ve got your foot in the throat of an opponent, that you can keep them there and how you do that.
"Out of the game today, we’ll take more learnings than the USA, I would have thought. That’s our challenge. This is the first blip. I genuinely think this is the first blip that we’ve had, but it’s not going to be a problem.
"The group and the capability to learn and willingness to learn is in a really strong place. We want to keep getting good performances out there. We want to get results."
Although there were concerns over the amount of entries the USA were given in the opening half, the hosts did appear to be cruising when Dorothy Wall crossed in the 46th minute and Dannah O’Brien converted to make it 31-12.
But the wheels came off spectacularly as the Americans, exposing Ireland’s defensive weaknesses and ill-discipline against the States' physicality, especially up front. Fixing their maul defence will be a priority after the powerful visitors made hay.
"To be fair to USA, they capitalised on it," said Ireland skipper Erin King. "They saw that it was working, and yeah, we probably gave them some easy ins, discipline-wise.
"It’s kind of easy fixes. It's going back to the basics. And I think when we get them little things right and we regroup together, I think we'll take great learnings from it."
As Bemand mentioned, Ireland did make a flying start. Stacey Flood finished a slick move in the seventh minute before Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald added a second try from a lineout maul.
Aoife Wafer then powered over from close range, with O’Brien’s conversion making it 21-0 after just 19 minutes.
The USA finally hit back through Georgie Perris-Redding before Hope Rogers reduced the deficit further with a lineout-maul try.
Ireland restored their advantage before half-time when Eve Higgins raced clear after Anna McGann’s superb break, giving the hosts a 26-12 lead.
Wall’s early second-half score appeared to settle the contest, but the USA had other ideas.
Hooker Kathryn Treder scored twice from dominant lineout mauls, with Ireland winger Kinlan in the sin-bin for the second, with out-half Bella Vogel put them ahead for the first time with the conversion.
Freda Tafuna and Vogel completed the extraordinary turnaround three minutes later as back row Tafuna powered through King to score and Vogel made it 40-31.
Ireland desperately searched for a response and Wall scored in the final minute, but O’Brien missed the rushed conversion in keeping the contest alive as the clock ticked towards the 80th minute.
One last attack ended in an American interception, allowing the visitors to kick the ball into touch and for head coach Jack Hanratty, who hails from Skerries in north county Dublin, to celebrate a remarkable comeback victory.
S Flood; R O'Connor, A Dalton (A McGann 70), E Higgins, V Elmes Kinlan, D O'Brien, E Lane (A Reilly 51); N O'Dowd (E Cahill 51), C Moloney-MacDonald (N Jones 51), L Djougang, D Wall, F Tuite-O'Sullivan, J Adams Verling (B Hogan 51), E King, A Wafer.
K Canett, T Uhatafe, T Hann (N Mason 53), E Henrich, E Coulibaly, B Vogel, A Paton (C Bargell 76); H Rogers (C Hill-Huse 76), K Treder, K Sagapolu-Senele (A Leatherman 33), H Taufoou, R Ehrecke (E Jarrell-Searcy 53), H Humphreys, G Perris-Redding (K Bailey 53), F Tafuna.
M Cogger-Orr (New Zealand)
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