Scott Bemand challenging his Ireland team to back up Japan win
ALL TOGETHER NOW: Ireland's Emily Lane, Béibhinn Parsons and Niamh Gallagher celebrate during the match against Japan in Galway's Dexcom Stadium. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane
Scott Bemand is relishing Ireland’s opportunity for a Heineken Cup-style rematch with Japan in Cork this Saturday after seeing his side dig deep to edge this WXV Global Series encounter at Dexcom Stadium.
The Irish women had teetered on the brink of blowing another big lead. They allowed Japan to rally from 19-0 down after 35 minutes to 19-12 after the 44th. That prompted ghosts of the previous Saturday’s collapse from 31-12 up early in the second half against the USA in Tallaght only to lose 40-36.
Yet, having taken such a strong grip on a typically breezy day by Galway Bay, with flanker Brittany Hogan powering over for the first two scores and wing Beibhinn Parsons claiming the first of her own double on the way to an Irish women’s record 24, Bemand left the Dexcom on Sunday satisfied his team had problem-solved in-game to withstand a four-try Japanese comeback.
Second-half tries from replacement centre Aoife Dalton and the score which took Parsons past former Connacht teammate Alison Miller were enough to keep the visitors at bay, and with the two teams set to meet for a second time in a week, at Virgin Media Park next Saturday, this time outside the WVX Global Series window, the head coach is looking for Ireland to kick on further.
The back-to-back games recall the much-missed Heineken Cup pool format when Europe’s heavyweight men’s teams played home and away on successive weekends during the pool stages and Bemand said: “We've been talking about that this week.
“It was one of the really special things about that competition, where you get to back up. It feels like a series, and I've just called it part one.
“We want to back it up. It's really important: A, because it's any of the learnings that we take from this week, it's who implements them faster, better.
“We'll keep going after us. There's a game out there that we believe, it's that we don't want it to be a close game. We want to take the scoreboard away.
“There's some bits that we need to go after, absolutely. I think we're a step ahead than we were last week, but there's still a bit to go. So roll our sleeves up. We go again.
“We get a six-day turnaround, which feels a little bit different as well. We've been relatively used to seven days of late, so having a six-day turnaround ... we'll look at getting what we need to on the training paddock, freshening up, and looking to attack down in Cork next week.”
Bemand felt Ireland left at least three tries out on the field with two held up and another promising position denied by a tackle into touch in the corner, but he was grateful for some trademark Parsons finishing as the 24-year-old from nearby Ballinasloe delighted the home crowd with two excellent turns of pace to burn past Japanese defenders in the 35th and 75th minutes.
Eight years on from an Ireland debut at the age of 16, Parsons was playing her first game since summer surgery to correct syndesmosis in an ankle. Her tries in her 37th cap were a valuable reminder of the wing’s importance to Ireland’s cause.
“Beibhinn's been around for what feels like forever,” Bemand said. “I remember I was coaching in a different group (England) when Beibhinn first came onto the scene, and I remember thinking, there's a right player there.
“She had physicality, she had a fend, she had leg drive, and top-end speed to finish, as we've seen today.
“Beibhinn's such an important player for Ireland Women's Rugby. She's incredibly professional. She turns up. She's come back from an ankle piece over the summer. Two weeks ago you could tell she was absolutely raring to play, and we managed to hold her back one week.
“We've got a good stock of wingers. It's a competitive piece. It's nothing like Bei wanting to show and put her own stamp on it, saying that, 'you just listen here, you lot. I'm still in, I'm still here’.
“Bei's going to continue to score tries over the next however many years so it's really exciting to see how good she can become because she keeps going after it. She knows she's not the finished article yet, but each time we challenge her, she keeps getting better and, crikey, she keeps scoring tries, so more of that please.”
The Connacht wing was thrilled to have reached her feat on her home ground in Galway, but she too has designs on adding more tries to her tally.
“It's probably something I'll look back on down the line. Right now, we're in the middle of a campaign and this team, we want to go places and we need to fix a lot of stuff on the pitch.
“So it's a great thing and it's more so for my family and they'll be proud of it. But for me, I have a lot to work on and there's a lot more things I want to do.”
IRELAND: S Flood (N Gallagher, 76); B Parsons, A McGann, E Higgins (A Dalton, 44), V Elmes Kinlan; D O’Brien, A Reilly (E Lane, 68); N O’Dowd (S McGrath, 62), N Jones (B Buttimer, 62), E Cahill (L Djougang, 44); D Wall, F Tuite-O'Sullivan (J Clohessy, 68); B Hogan, E King – captain, J Adams Verling (G Moore, 68).
Yellow card: E King 40-50 mins
JAPAN: M Nishi; S Nishimura, U Kataoka, M Furuta (M Yamamoto, 64), K Imakugi; S Harada, M Tsukui – captain (M Nishimura, 78); H Komaki (N Yoshida, 56), M Nagaoka (N Nagata, 58), W Kitano (J Fuji, 56); M Kawamura, Y Sato (O Yoshimura, 71); N Asari, S Korai (M Yua Havili Kagawa, 62), J Nduka (A Seo,62).
Referee: Ella Goldsmith (Australia).
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