THE SECURITY OF already being qualified for the quarter-finals took some of the sting out of a bruising experience as Ireland felt the full force of what it’s like to come up against a genuine World Cup contender.
A 40-0 defeat, in which New Zealand showcased their exceptional linespeed and added moments of real quality in attack, was a deflating return from a weekend that promised so much, but always threatened to lead to a one-sided contest in Brighton.
Ireland now move on to Exeter, where they will play France for a place in the semi-finals, needing to quickly pick themselves up from a gutting defeat. The French advanced as winners of Pool D by thumping South Africa 57-10 in today’s late game.
Ireland had limited time in the New Zealand 22, enjoying sustained periods of pressure early in the first half and late in the second, but were unable to find any way through.
“If you look over the last two weeks we’ve actually been pretty clinical in terms of getting into the score zone and coming away with points,” said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand.
Clearly, a different challenge against New Zealand in the type of athlete and the type of player they’ve got, the physicality they bring.
“The fact we’re getting in there and creating momentum and getting opportunities to get ‘ins’ will be something we’ll look at and go ‘Ok, we understand we need to do more of that again against another World Cup contender next week. We just need to be a little bit smarter in how we get over the whitewash when those opportunities come.
“I think if you look to the 75th minute and it’s 26-0, and some of those have come off the back of our errors which have created an opportunity for them to get in, so I think there’s a lot of positive stuff that we can go at from this.
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“There’s clearly some bits we want to tidy up if you’re going to go up against World Cup contenders and next week, quarter-final where there’s no second chances. So we’re going to freshen up this week and get our best game out there next weekend.”
Bemand hopes the decision to play a strong hand in their final pool game stands to his players next weekend. The challenge New Zealand brought was on another level to the opening games against Japan and Spain. The thinking is that living through that intensity in front of a bumper crowd gives the group a taste of what to expect when they face France, a side they last beat in 2017.
“There’s been a bit of debate going on about what and how we select for this game, the last two years somebody like Dannah O’Brien has been able to go into those sort of theatres, big crowds and lots of noise and each time she’s got better. Each time she’s dealt with the pressure, the crowd, the noise better and better.
Claire Boles is tackled by Layla Sae. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“She and a lot of the others will learn loads from being in that environment today. Hopefully we learn to feed off that energy, I thought the Irish crowd was fantastic. We’ll need more energy in behind us next week so let’s see how much noise we can bring.”
As Bemand completed his media duties, Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan had mixed emotions, taken aback by the scale of the occasion and Irish support but deeply frustrated with the product on the pitch.
“It was our carrying game, we need to be more physical,” Monaghan said.
“We need to hit them up front, hit the front door, test them through the middle like they were doing to us, then be able to play off that. We were a bit passive with our carry at the start, once we got on top of them then we could play. You could see things opening up and we were free to play. At times, we just lost that gain line and that’s what we needed to do.
“We were on top of them, it was frustrating. Our depth, once we come running onto the ball…the likes of Brittany Hogan, Clíodhna Moloney (MacDonald), those players they are going over. (It’s about) Having a bit more time, our timing off our nines as well, working onto the ball, carrying over.”
It was a bruising experience, with Ireland losing a handful of players to injury, the most concerning of which appeared to be Stacey Flood, who left on a stretcher with a foot injury. Eve Higgins needed a HIA and Edel McMahon was removed as a precaution following a knock. Aoife Wafer, yet to feature at the World Cup, took part in a long warm-up routine before the game.
“Stacey has got a cut on her foot so we’ll certainly need to have a look at that and try to get that fixed up as best as we can and as quick as we can. Both Eve and Edel have come off but I’m pretty hopeful they’ll come through pretty quickly.
As I stand here now, with what I know, I’m pretty hopeful that everybody is going to be fit and raring to go next week.
“She (Higgins) had a HIA but she’s passed it. Edel got a small bump to her knee, we made a decision, we had Claire Boles to come on and Boles is a very able player to bring on.”
Ultimately, Ireland were just disappointed not to put in a stronger performance for the large Irish support in the 30,000 crowd.
“The support was outstanding,” Bemand said. “I had goosebumps for the anthems and hearing ‘Ireland’s Call’. I thought the crowd, they’ve been filling Brighton for the past two or three days, it’s been outstanding to see the green wave grow.
“We wanted to give them something and there will be moments they’d be proud of. Quarter-final, winner takes all. It’s an exciting opportunity for us and for the Ireland support to get behind them.”
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Ireland count cost of bruising experience as France lie in wait
THE SECURITY OF already being qualified for the quarter-finals took some of the sting out of a bruising experience as Ireland felt the full force of what it’s like to come up against a genuine World Cup contender.
A 40-0 defeat, in which New Zealand showcased their exceptional linespeed and added moments of real quality in attack, was a deflating return from a weekend that promised so much, but always threatened to lead to a one-sided contest in Brighton.
Ireland now move on to Exeter, where they will play France for a place in the semi-finals, needing to quickly pick themselves up from a gutting defeat. The French advanced as winners of Pool D by thumping South Africa 57-10 in today’s late game.
Ireland had limited time in the New Zealand 22, enjoying sustained periods of pressure early in the first half and late in the second, but were unable to find any way through.
“If you look over the last two weeks we’ve actually been pretty clinical in terms of getting into the score zone and coming away with points,” said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand.
“The fact we’re getting in there and creating momentum and getting opportunities to get ‘ins’ will be something we’ll look at and go ‘Ok, we understand we need to do more of that again against another World Cup contender next week. We just need to be a little bit smarter in how we get over the whitewash when those opportunities come.
“I think if you look to the 75th minute and it’s 26-0, and some of those have come off the back of our errors which have created an opportunity for them to get in, so I think there’s a lot of positive stuff that we can go at from this.
“There’s clearly some bits we want to tidy up if you’re going to go up against World Cup contenders and next week, quarter-final where there’s no second chances. So we’re going to freshen up this week and get our best game out there next weekend.”
Bemand hopes the decision to play a strong hand in their final pool game stands to his players next weekend. The challenge New Zealand brought was on another level to the opening games against Japan and Spain. The thinking is that living through that intensity in front of a bumper crowd gives the group a taste of what to expect when they face France, a side they last beat in 2017.
“There’s been a bit of debate going on about what and how we select for this game, the last two years somebody like Dannah O’Brien has been able to go into those sort of theatres, big crowds and lots of noise and each time she’s got better. Each time she’s dealt with the pressure, the crowd, the noise better and better.
“She and a lot of the others will learn loads from being in that environment today. Hopefully we learn to feed off that energy, I thought the Irish crowd was fantastic. We’ll need more energy in behind us next week so let’s see how much noise we can bring.”
As Bemand completed his media duties, Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan had mixed emotions, taken aback by the scale of the occasion and Irish support but deeply frustrated with the product on the pitch.
“It was our carrying game, we need to be more physical,” Monaghan said.
“We need to hit them up front, hit the front door, test them through the middle like they were doing to us, then be able to play off that. We were a bit passive with our carry at the start, once we got on top of them then we could play. You could see things opening up and we were free to play. At times, we just lost that gain line and that’s what we needed to do.
“We were on top of them, it was frustrating. Our depth, once we come running onto the ball…the likes of Brittany Hogan, Clíodhna Moloney (MacDonald), those players they are going over. (It’s about) Having a bit more time, our timing off our nines as well, working onto the ball, carrying over.”
It was a bruising experience, with Ireland losing a handful of players to injury, the most concerning of which appeared to be Stacey Flood, who left on a stretcher with a foot injury. Eve Higgins needed a HIA and Edel McMahon was removed as a precaution following a knock. Aoife Wafer, yet to feature at the World Cup, took part in a long warm-up routine before the game.
“Stacey has got a cut on her foot so we’ll certainly need to have a look at that and try to get that fixed up as best as we can and as quick as we can. Both Eve and Edel have come off but I’m pretty hopeful they’ll come through pretty quickly.
“She (Higgins) had a HIA but she’s passed it. Edel got a small bump to her knee, we made a decision, we had Claire Boles to come on and Boles is a very able player to bring on.”
Ultimately, Ireland were just disappointed not to put in a stronger performance for the large Irish support in the 30,000 crowd.
“The support was outstanding,” Bemand said. “I had goosebumps for the anthems and hearing ‘Ireland’s Call’. I thought the crowd, they’ve been filling Brighton for the past two or three days, it’s been outstanding to see the green wave grow.
“We wanted to give them something and there will be moments they’d be proud of. Quarter-final, winner takes all. It’s an exciting opportunity for us and for the Ireland support to get behind them.”
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