AMONG THE GOOD things that Scott Bemand will bring to Irish women’s rugby is the fact that he has so recently seen where the game can go.
Back in April, he was a central part of the England coaching team as the Red Roses clinched a Grand Slam by beating France in front of an astonishing crowd of 58,498 people at Twickenham. It was Bemand’s last game with the team. What a way to finish.
That figure smashed the previous record for a women’s game, 42,579, which was set last year at the final of the Women’s World Cup in Eden Park, Auckland. England were denied by hosts New Zealand that day but it was another remarkable occasion.
Watching those games, it all felt light years away from where Irish women’s rugby is. Bemand has been appointed head coach of the Ireland 15s team and he has a big job on his hands to lift them out of the doldrums.
In the wake of losing captain Nichola Fryday to international retirement last week, the appointment of Bemand is welcome good news for Ireland. The IRFU asked for patience with this search and now, 12 weeks after Greg McWilliams’ exit, it has made an impressive appointment. The union has attracted lots of fair criticism for its management of women’s rugby but this is a convincing move.
44-year-old Bemand will get started next month, having just finished an extremely successful eight-year stint as a key coaching figure with England.
During that time, England won six Six Nations titles, five of them Grand Slams. They got to two World Cup finals too, losing to New Zealand in 2017 and again last year.
Bemand was England’s ‘lead coach,’ working under head coach Simon Middleton and focusing on the attack. Bemand is reputedly smart on that side of the game, which is welcome given that Ireland scored just three tries in their five Six Nations defeats this year.
In February of this year, Middleton and Bemand announced that they would be finishing their work with England at the end of last season. Bemand said “it’s time for a fresh voice for the group” and spoke of his excitement for a new challenge. He’s got it now.
He comes from an environment where only the highest standards are accepted. While ex-Leicester and Bath scrum-half Bemand will surely understand that a young Irish squad is learning about high performance sport, his demands are likely to be firm.
Ireland have been through the late Tom Tierney, Adam Griggs, and Greg McWilliams as head coaches over the past seven years. None of them left in happy circumstances and they would have admitted to their own errors, but they didn’t deserve all the blame for disappointing performances. Those coaches would probably have argued privately that they weren’t working with top-quality players.
Bemand says he believes there is a “promising talent pool of players” and it’s clear that the Ireland U18s and new U20s squads have some major prospects, but Ireland will need more than just promise in the shorter-term. Patience is certainly required as some of the younger players continue to adapt to Test rugby, but the top level of the game isn’t all that patient or forgiving. Other nations continue to improve and Ireland have to start catching up before they’re completely out of sight.
One of the best features of the successful Ireland team of the 2013/14 era was their relentlessly high standards. They placed fierce demands on each other. There was a lot of love and care within the group, but they didn’t accept poor training and preparation. They pushed their coaches and didn’t excuse themselves when they lost.
Indeed, this writer was rebuked by one senior player after Ireland’s 2014 World Cup semi-final defeat to England. She felt disrespected by the lack of what would have been justified criticism. It was undoubtedly an excellent campaign, including a first-ever win over New Zealand, but the players felt they hadn’t performed in that semi-final.
In fairness, that crop of players developed their hard-nosed attitude over many years, some of which were seriously tough. They had big losses, some terrible performances, and bad experiences off the pitch. The hope is that this exciting new crop of youngsters can develop a similar edge.
It’s positive that Bemand is so experienced in women’s rugby. Any coach who has worked with men’s teams before taking on roles with women’s sides will tell you it’s different. Female players are generally highly inquisitive and need thorough explanations around why the team will do certain things, which isn’t always the case in male teams. Connecting with players on a personal level can also be a different challenge. What works within the men’s game doesn’t necessarily work in a women’s squad.
Assistant coaches John McKee, Niamh Briggs, and Denis Fogarty are set to continue in their roles for the upcoming WXV 3 campaign at least, while Ireland will have a new team manager in former Ireland 7s international Elaine Ryan. There’s also an existing staff that covers S&C, physio, nutrition, analysis, medical, and other logistics. In short, Ireland have all the resources they need in the national team set-up.
It’s worth pointing that the contracts on offer to Irish players aren’t of sufficient value for people living in Dublin, but the IRFU offers do compare favourably with women’s rugby contracts elsewhere. The bigger issue is the ongoing concern over the state of the domestic game in Ireland. That remains a major deterrent for players based abroad.
Bemand will need the IRFU to ensure that the whole system starts working together and that the clubs feel some love from the union. He needs the IRFU to figure out exactly how balancing 7s and 15s is going to work after the 2024 Olympics because the current situation means the 15s team are without some of the most talented players.
All of this is to say that Englishman Bemand isn’t going to sweep in and clean up Irish women’s rugby himself, but he should be a strong appointment for the national team.
WXV 3, the third tier of World Rugby’s new annual competition, will take place in Dubai from 14 to 28 October, pitting Ireland against Fiji, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Colombia, and either Italy or Spain.
Either of those last two nations will be a big impediment to Ireland being promoted at the first time of asking. However, with a well-regarded new head coach in Bemand, it truly is time for this Irish team to start delivering more on the pitch.
Crowds of over 40,000 might seem like a pipe dream right now but it has to start somewhere.
