IRELAND HEAD COACH Scott Bemand expressed his pleasure at how his team came through some challenging moments to notch a 33-12 win over Wales in the Six Nations.
The Welsh scrapped for everything in Belfast but Ireland scored five tries to earn a bonus-point victory that sends them into next weekend’s closing-round clash with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium with momentum.
Having also beaten Italy in Galway in the second round, Ireland are on course to win all of their home matches in the championship.
“We wanted to come out of this competition with three home wins,” said Bemand.
“So we just scored a bonus-point win at home, which is the second part of that, which leads us nicely into next week. It was really important to come back from France [where Ireland lost] and get the result.
“We always go after the performance. There’s bits of that performance that we’re incredibly proud of and there’s bits where we feel we left out there. But credit to Wales, I think they turned up and they made it incredibly combative, got pressure on the breakdown.
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“I don’t think we got an awful lot of fast ball out there and had to deal with some different things that we’ve not really experienced that much of before.
“To summarise it, it’s one of those days that we still found a way to score more tries. So we’ve got the bonus point. Job done. We go into next week full of confidence.”
Despite the happy outcome, there was an undoubted sense that parts of Ireland’s performance left them frustrated.
Linda Djougang and Eve Higgins. Nick Elliott / INPHO
Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO
It’s a sign of how their expectations and standards have risen in recent seasons, and it leaves Ireland looking for their most complete performance of the campaign against Scotland next time out.
Bemand believes there is plenty more to come from this team.
“I think there’s loads,” said Bemand. “I think we said early, didn’t we, that if we lost to France, it wasn’t going to make or break our season or our competition.
“I was actually watching some footage back from two years ago when we played Wales in Cork, and it’s almost unrecognisable the group that we were becoming to what we were. And I was going to show some clips, and I actually chose not to. That’s a different world.
“Probably we’re all left feeling, ‘Ah, it wasn’t quite the performance that we’re after.’
“It’s OK. You get games where the breakdown is messy, you can’t get fast ball, and you’ve got to find a way. You’ve got to find a way to deal with challenges that are maybe slightly unique or something you’re not used to facing.
“We left a couple out there as well. So in terms of performance and where we’re going, we’re teeing ourselves up nicely. We’re just going to keep growing it. We wear our learnings well.
“Next week comes with its own different set of challenges and we’ll be better at finding solutions. We’re going to keep going after getting the ball down, which we got today.
“We got some nice pick-and-go tries which is a reflection of some of the work that we’ve learned against France. And when we get opportunities, we’ll just keep trying to be better at getting them on our terms.”
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Ireland 'full of confidence' after getting job done against Wales
IRELAND HEAD COACH Scott Bemand expressed his pleasure at how his team came through some challenging moments to notch a 33-12 win over Wales in the Six Nations.
The Welsh scrapped for everything in Belfast but Ireland scored five tries to earn a bonus-point victory that sends them into next weekend’s closing-round clash with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium with momentum.
Having also beaten Italy in Galway in the second round, Ireland are on course to win all of their home matches in the championship.
“We wanted to come out of this competition with three home wins,” said Bemand.
“So we just scored a bonus-point win at home, which is the second part of that, which leads us nicely into next week. It was really important to come back from France [where Ireland lost] and get the result.
“We always go after the performance. There’s bits of that performance that we’re incredibly proud of and there’s bits where we feel we left out there. But credit to Wales, I think they turned up and they made it incredibly combative, got pressure on the breakdown.
“I don’t think we got an awful lot of fast ball out there and had to deal with some different things that we’ve not really experienced that much of before.
“To summarise it, it’s one of those days that we still found a way to score more tries. So we’ve got the bonus point. Job done. We go into next week full of confidence.”
Despite the happy outcome, there was an undoubted sense that parts of Ireland’s performance left them frustrated.
It’s a sign of how their expectations and standards have risen in recent seasons, and it leaves Ireland looking for their most complete performance of the campaign against Scotland next time out.
Bemand believes there is plenty more to come from this team.
“I think there’s loads,” said Bemand. “I think we said early, didn’t we, that if we lost to France, it wasn’t going to make or break our season or our competition.
“I was actually watching some footage back from two years ago when we played Wales in Cork, and it’s almost unrecognisable the group that we were becoming to what we were. And I was going to show some clips, and I actually chose not to. That’s a different world.
“Probably we’re all left feeling, ‘Ah, it wasn’t quite the performance that we’re after.’
“It’s OK. You get games where the breakdown is messy, you can’t get fast ball, and you’ve got to find a way. You’ve got to find a way to deal with challenges that are maybe slightly unique or something you’re not used to facing.
“We left a couple out there as well. So in terms of performance and where we’re going, we’re teeing ourselves up nicely. We’re just going to keep growing it. We wear our learnings well.
“Next week comes with its own different set of challenges and we’ll be better at finding solutions. We’re going to keep going after getting the ball down, which we got today.
“We got some nice pick-and-go tries which is a reflection of some of the work that we’ve learned against France. And when we get opportunities, we’ll just keep trying to be better at getting them on our terms.”
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Six Nations Erin King Ireland Scott Bemand step two Wales