THE BUILD-UP HAS been hugely positive; the excitement palpable as a new chapter for Irish women’s rugby begins.
The Greg McWilliams era officially kicks off in today’s Six Nations opener against Wales at the RDS [KO 4.45pm, live on Virgin Media One].
There’s a whole new-feel to it already, after a winter of change on and off the pitch.
Little reminder is needed of last September’s heartbreak in Parma, as the World Cup dream came crashing down. The aftermath wasn’t pretty; from reviews and government letters, to reports and the promise of reform.
The fallout and negativity all played out in a very public sphere, interrupting the grieving process as players attempted to come to terms with gut-wrenching disappointment in their failure to qualify.
This week, McWilliams and some of those players addressed just that: the need to park the disappointment of the past and move on. This is a blank canvas, a fresh start, they proclaimed — and mental baggage must be left at the door as any hint of a hangover is avoided.
“Look, that’s really important,” new captain Nichola Fryday said yesterday. “That’s life – you can’t dwell on things that have happened to you in the past, you have to look forward and move on. And for us as a squad, that’s what we’ve been focusing on.
“I think those two matches in November kind of allowed us to have that closure. For a player, it’s hugely disappointing not to be able to go to a World Cup. For us now going forward, we’re looking at the future, but we want to make sure that no other Irish player experiences that. That’s the outlook we have on it.
“We’re just really excited to get out and this campaign is for us to show, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to World Cup, but God damn, we should be there.’”
It’s an opportunity for betterment, after all, and can be used as fuel. And that’s how the ever-impressive Dorothy Wall sees it too after a difficult journey to this point.
“With all things in life, if you don’t process it, it’s just going to always be there,” the Tipperary woman noted.
“I won’t say the first few months after the tournament weren’t difficult, because they were. If they weren’t, you’d be questioning something because it means so much. It makes you more resilient as a player, it makes you more resilient as a team. If anything, I think it’s going to be a weapon in our artillery in terms of how we deal with future adversity.”
Immediate results are far from the priority, but Wales at home is certainly a manageable start. Ireland were 45-0 winners in their meeting last year and have been the dominant force in recent Six Nations fare, but the Welsh are the ones preparing for a World Cup with professional structures in place.
For Ireland, there is a long-term vision to this new chapter, with McWilliams not shying away from talk of silverware or “closing the gap” with England and France.
Fryday and full-back Eimear Considine have both spoken about the “new system” they are looking to play going forward, and the bold calls McWilliams has made in selection confirm as much with players deployed in different positions and handed new-look roles, while some big names were left out from the squad altogether.
It all points towards seeing a different kind of Ireland over the next few weeks, but Wall was reluctant to give too much away.
“Yeah, I think it’s gonna be really exciting. I’m not going to tell you how we’re going to play, but it’s going to be exciting,” she dead-panned.
Fryday offered a little more after yesterday’s captain’s run, as she predicted a “good, positive campaign” for her side.
“Greg, as a person, his energy is infectious,” the Tullamore second row outlined. “So that’s something that we, as a squad, have picked up on over the last few weeks.
“His big focus is on ball-in-play time. So that’s what we’ve been really training hard and that’s what we want to want to see come to fruition tomorrow – that we’re able to keep those long phases of play and stress teams in that sense. That’s going to be a big focus for us, but at the same time, we want girls to go out and express themselves.
“We have hugely talented players within the squad, so for them to be able to just go out and play how they like to play and take those opportunities when they come — and look, if we make the wrong decisions, we make the wrong decisions, but that’s something that we review as a team and we would learn from and move on from. That’s our outlook for this match anyways, and probably for the tournament as well; to get ball-in-play time and then just express yourself and enjoy it.”
There’s plenty to be enjoyed as the Women’s Six Nations finally has a standalone, permanent window in the calendar, with positive developments made across the board from TikTok as the historic first title partner to unprecedented broadcast coverage confirmed.
The full five-game series has been restored for the first time since 2019, and likewise, there are no Covid-19 crowd restrictions in place with almost 6000 tickets sold as of yesterday.
An electric atmosphere is expected at the RDS this evening, before games are spread across the country for the first time with clashes in Musgrave Park and Kingspan Stadium to follow. Wall hailed “the extra boost” of having a home crowd, as she looked forward to her grandmother coming to her first game since her debut in 2020.
With just 10 caps to her name, she’s established herself as one of the team’s most important players in a short space of time, with leadership skills exuding her on and off the pitch.
“I’m hugely relying on those girls, and it’s not just the leadership group,” captain Fryday stressed. “There’s girls that are hugely experienced, and it might not be in caps, but they’ve been in this system for four or five years and they have that exposure to this level.
It was brilliant to have @BrianODriscoll in with the squad this evening as he presented the players with their jerseys ahead of Saturday's #TikTokW6N clash against Wales! ☘️#NothingLikeIt | #IREvWAL pic.twitter.com/tMi79jfng6
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) March 25, 2022
“The likes of Eimear Considine, she’s a wealth of knowledge, Linda Djougang is a world-class prop. For those girls, I’m really relying on them to stand up and give me their thoughts of different things. It’s definitely a squad effort. And it’s not just falling on me and my leadership group. It’s definitely about the collective and that’s something that Greg has really pushed as well: that girls start to express themselves, stand up and show what they know.”
“I suppose you’re trying to learn more with every session, with every meeting, from new coaching, from new players,” Wall added, outlining a common thread that runs through the group.
“You’re just constantly trying to absorb as much knowledge as you can from former leaders, from everyone. I think there’s a leader in every person on the pitch and I think you’re going to see that this Saturday in terms of how we play and you know, the moxie that Greg’s mentioned. It’s going to be there in abundance in every player.”
And undoubtedly, it will be needed if Ireland are to open this new chapter on a high.
IRELAND: Eimear Considine; Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Eve Higgins, Stacey Flood, Lucy Mulhall; Nicole Cronin, Aoibheann Reilly; Linda Djougang, Neve Jones, Katie O’Dwyer, Nichola Fryday (captain), Sam Monaghan, Dorothy Wall, Edel McMahon, Brittany Hogan.
Replacements: Emma Hooban, Chloe Pearse, Christy Haney, Anna McGann, Hannah O’Connor, Kathryn Dane, Enya Breen, Beibhinn Parsons.
WALES: Kayleigh Powell; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Jones, Kerin Lake, Jasmine Joyce; Elinor Snowsill, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Carys Phillips, Cerys Hale, Natalia John, Gwen Crabb, Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Siwan Lillicrap (captain).
Replacements: Kelsey Jones, Cara Hope, Donna Rose, Sioned Harries, Bethan Lewis, Ffion Lewis, Robyn Wilkins, Sisilla Tuipulotu.
