IRELAND WOMEN’S COACHING staff have been exploring the idea of training against men’s underage teams in a bid to get better.
While Covid-19 restrictions have prevented the possibility from getting off the ground in recent seasons, the Ireland coaching staff remain hopeful that it could happen in the future.
Ireland have lost both of their games in the Six Nations so far, having started a rebuild under new head coach Greg McWilliams. With the team having also failed to qualify for this year’s Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, there is clear scope for improvement in the Irish team.
One potential strand in that project to get better could be training against young men’s teams.
“It’s a smashing idea, it’s one that I suggested last year when I first came in,” said Ireland Women scrum coach Rob Sweeney today.
“There was a lot of Covid going on so it wasn’t really a runner.
“It’s something that we are working on pretty hard at the moment because we see the benefit in it and we know what it would do for the scrum and lineout and things like that.
“We have to be careful still around some of the Covid situation and making sure that that’s OK.
“As soon as we can get something like that against one of the provincial underage sides, 18s, 19s, 20s, I think it would be absolutely smashing.
“The girls would go well from it and also it would open the lads’ eyes up to the level that the girls are at, which I think would be class.”
In the short-term, Ireland are looking to bounce back from last weekend’s 40-5 defeat away to France when they welcome Italy to Musgrave Park this Sunday.
Preparations for that Round 3 clash in Cork are complicated by the fact that Ireland Women don’t come back together as a group until Thursday, having broken up after the France game in order for many of their players to return to work or studies.
While some of the squad are on full-time 7s rugby contracts and can therefore train more freely, it’s an obvious challenge for McWilliams and co. However, Sweeney says Ireland are making the best of the situation.
“It’s a funny one because you’re in constant communication the whole time,” said Sweeney.
“There’s scrum WhatsApp groups, there’s forwards WhatsApp groups, you’re speaking to the girls the whole time.
“The application of what they’re doing, the learning in what they’re doing, they’re studying what happened on Saturday and we’re talking about what needs to be done so that when we get to training on Thursday, it’s not just starting from then. We know what needs to be focused on.”
Ireland’s lineout was very poor in France last time out, while the scrum is another huge area of focus this week, given that the French took Ireland apart in that area, gaining major momentum and winning several penalties at the set-piece.
Sweeney is convinced that Ireland can make big improvements despite only having three days in camp this week before the Italy game.
“We knew ourselves going into it that an away trip to France, from playing them last year, that they were going to be very good. But the big thing we’ve taken from it is that it’s a massive learning for our girls.
“As mad as it is, to be on the back end of a scrum like that, you do only learn and get better from it. So we’ve picked out a couple of bits. You look at Christy [Haney] who made her debut and she was outstanding. Linda [Djougang] played both sides [of the front row], she did very well.
“There’s a lot of good stuff there and it is the start of this team’s journey. It will be fixed.
“John Fogarty [the Ireland men's scrum coach] is helping me out with it, David Nucifora [the IRFU's performance director] was on-site on Saturday helping out, so everyone is pulling together in the right direction with it.
“There’s a few bits that we see as key that we’re going to work hard on on Thursday and Friday to make right for Sunday. It will be better for Sunday.
“If you look at the playing age of some of our girls, it’s quite young in comparison to some of the English and French girls, but we know that and the girls are well aware of it but I’m absolutely certain there are a couple of key things that we can do to get better for Sunday. I know we will be better for Sunday and the girls themselves know we will be better for Sunday.”
