BETTER THAT HAPPEN now than when it means more?
Ireland head coach Adam Griggs agrees, but the way his side were denied a maiden November Test victory was understandably heartbreaking.
“Look, we’re still thoroughly disappointed,” he frowned after the last-gasp 15-13 loss to Wales in Belfield yesterday.
“The last six weeks of our preparation have been building towards this Test match at home in front of our friends and family. It’s still disappointing and I guess the way the victory came for Wales was that much harder to take.”
We’ll delve a little deeper into the six-week training camp in which stints were spent in France and Scotland and preparation for a massive 2020 further down, but a little more on their sole 2019 November Test first.
The hosts were 10-0 up and dominating after tries either side of the break from Linda Djougang and Enya Breen, before Wales bit back at the UCD Bowl.
A penalty and a converted try levelled matters by the 67th minute, before Ireland 10 Ellen Murphy edged her side into the driving seat once again with a 72nd-minute placed kick. But Welsh replacement scrum-half Keira Bevan crashed over with the clock in red to break Irish hearts.
“I think we were just patchy,” Griggs added, when asked what disappointed him most. “Again, there’s learnings for us. We showed some glimpses of really good rugby, we played with the ball quite well, we stretched them.
“Probably in the first half I think we left a couple of opportunities for points abegging, and let them out of their own half too easily. In Test match rugby, you can’t afford to do that.
“In the second half, I think our intensity dropped off a bit. We let them in with a couple of line breaks, we started to soak tackle which gave them the front-foot ball that they wanted.
“Ultimately we’ve got to remain focused and keep up our intensity for a full 80 minutes.”
While the New Zealander then went on to discuss the positives and highlight some impressive performances, Connacht front row Laura Feely was keen to remain upbeat from the get-go in her media duties.
“Definitely plenty of positives to take from that,” she began. “We’ve been working hard on our defence and that really showed. That’s what we were really focusing on and hoping to get out of that match.
“Delighted with the defensive structure. Definitely work-ons taking into another camp next week. Straight into working on things that went wrong, but definitely positives.
“The finish of that game is fixable. Our own penalties kind of killed us and that. Our own ill-discipline the whole way through that match is all that went wrong. Easy fixes. I think we’re just used to panicking at times when we really don’t need to.
“We were dominant in that match and we should have just trusted our system.”
With Leinster’s Kieran Hallett coming in as defence coach, Griggs feels that’s “moving in the right direction,” while Steve McGinnis of IQ Rugby is looking after the forward department.
“Those two guys have certainly added value to the team,” he said, reflecting on a positive preparation period.
Ireland are looking to turn a new leaf after their worst Six Nations finish in 13 years, which saw them end up fifth after mustering up just one win. Yesterday was a measure of their early season progress, and they looked much-improved.
In July, the IRFU announced a 13-month plan which would see Ireland play two November Tests and an extended five-week Inter-Provincial championship to have the side in ideal shape for the World Cup Qualifiers in September 2020.
They were ‘let down badly’ however, and ended up playing just one autumn international — though a six-week training period in the lead-up included games against Philip ‘Goose’ Doyle’s Scotland and France.
And that was solid enough preparation for Griggs.
“Look, Test matches are great. You don’t really want to learn from a loss like this in a Test match, but the camps we had the last couple of weeks have been brilliant.
“We were over in France and that wasn’t just a game, we got to train against them fully opposed, full contact. They’ve been really accommodating to us, helping the girls. Something like that can actually be more beneficial than just going out and playing.
“We got five days over there with them and saw the way they worked as more professional and more full-time than us. I think it opened some of our girls’ eyes to what it takes to be one of the top teams in the world.”
Donegal native Feely felt it was equally beneficial.
“We’re very lucky that we’re just back from a week in France of training over there with the French squad,” the Galwegians star continued. “We got to play a match against them.
“We also got to play our younger girls against their U20s as well, so that was great for our younger members and uncapped players coming into the squad. We were in Scotland for a training game over there as well.
“Leading into this game, we feel like we’ve come on a lot since the last time we played in the Six Nations. It has been a good few months of camp.”
“Personally, I’ve found that I was at a different level coming into this November block than ever before,” she concluded on how the extended inter-pros have also sharpened herself and her team-mates up.
“The five games really stood to us. We’re playing against each other during that series, but you’re learning a lot about each other at the same time. It’s good.”
Remainder of 13-month plan
- December 2019: AIL
- January to March 2020: National camps, training games, leading into Six Nations
- April 2020: AIL concludes
- May 2020: Four-week off-season
- June to August 2020: Nine national camps, training games TBC
- September 2020: Women’s Rugby World Cup Qualifiers vs. Scotland, Italy and 2020 Rugby Europe Championship winner
2020 Six Nations fixtures
- 2nd Feb: Ireland Women v Scotland Women, Energia Park, Dublin; Kick-off 1pm
- 9th Feb: Ireland Women v Wales Women, Energia Park, Dublin; Kick-off 1pm
- 23rd Feb: England Women v Ireland Women, Castle Park, Doncaster; Kick-off 12.45pm
- 8th Mar: Ireland Women v Italy Women, Energia Park, Dublin; Kick-off 1pm
- 15th Mar: France Women v Ireland Women, Le Stadium, Lille; Kick-off 4.35pm
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