PHILIP DOYLE AND his Ireland Women’s squad have set their sights on making history at next month’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in France.
While they have been drawn alongside four-time champions New Zealand and the powerful USA in the pool stages, Doyle and his players have been ambitious in setting their goals.
“Our girls have set a target of making the semi-finals. From there, we will reset that. We have to have a goal and it’s definitely the semi-finals.”
Indeed, why would they settle for anything less than status as one of the four best teams in the world? Doyle’s side were Grand Slam champions of the 2013 Six Nations and have shown consistent progress since finishing seventh at the 2010 World Cup in England.
Doyle has been in charge for the last four years, following an original stint from 2003 until 2006, and has been integral to those improvements. He is in a better position than anyone to judge where and how Ireland have grown.
“The one thing that we do have is an awful lot more experience this time. I think there’s 10 in this squad who played in the last World Cup in 2010. We have the experience of winning that Grand Slam in 2013, so we know how to play the big pressure games.”
“We’re without doubt far more powerful. Basically, we’re fitter, stronger, faster. These girls are now as good as full-time athletes. They’re amateur but what they do during the week is exceptional.”
Doyle is swift to credit Ross Callaghan and Marian Earles, “two exceptional strength and conditioners,” for those physical gains, while pointing to the work of backs coach Greg McWilliams as key to the improvement of individual skills.
Much of the intense practice in those domains has taken place in the months since the 2014 Six Nations, in which Ireland suffered defeats to France and England. The loss at Twickenham was one that cut particularly deep, ending Ireland’s reign as champions.
The last three weekends have seen the Doyle, his players and coaches ensconced in their Enfield training camp, focusing on the basic individual skills of the game as well as the expected set-piece, defence and first-phase attack staples.
We’ve put a strong emphasis on the players’ decision-making under pressure while fatigued. We’ve been doing a lot of skills sessions where we’re fatiguing the players and looking at them very closely under that pressure.
“Greg has been doing a huge amount of work on their skills since the Six Nations. We’ve been working so hard on the specific skills of just even passing the ball, rucking, lifting, tackling, all those individual components.”
All the while, these camps have provided Doyle and his coaches with the chance to whittle the squad down to the finalised 26 who were named yesterday. The difficulty of that process proves how far Irish women’s rugby has come in recent years.
“By far, this was the strongest selection process that we’ve had. We met every week to discuss the players, but last Sunday evening we met for up to three hours to discuss the squad.
“It’s a credit to the ladies and the application they put in over the last three weekends and all the skills sessions and gym sessions during the week, as well as the entire season.”
Alongside Ireland in Pool B will be the US, who Doyle rates as “fantastic athletes” and points out are ranked above his team. Kazakhstan “play a hugely physical game,” but Ireland will likely need to rack up the tries in search of a bonus point against the Central Asians.
Most threateningly, the Black Ferns lie in wait, winners of the last four World Cups.
We’ve never played the Kiwis before, so the girls are very excited about playing the four-time world champions. It’s a huge task, but one that the girls are really going to relish,” says Doyle.
What is it that separates the New Zealanders from other sides?
“It’s amazing, but the New Zealand women’s team play like the men’s team. It’s uncanny. The Kiwis play exactly like the men and they have the same skill sets. Their skill under pressure is exceptional, their ball retention is exceptional.
“They play a little more directly now [than four years ago], with a little extra muscle up front. They wait for you to cough up chances, and then they have the skills and pace out wide to punish you.”
Ireland will focus intently on possession and field position to counter those strengths, while Doyle has been busy analysing an extensive library of the Black Ferns’ games in search of potential weaknesses.
No stone has been left unturned as Ireland prepare for this World Cup. They fly to Madrid this weekend to face Spain in a warm-up friendly, before further training camps and a final pre-tournament fixture against Wales in Malahide later this month.
Doyle’s squad have even carried out individual personality profiling with the IRFU to ensure that they function as a group as effectively as possible.
Not that the head coach has any concerns in that department.
There are no real individuals or egos; everyone just pushes in the same direction. It’s one of the classic things about the Irish women’s team, sometimes different to other teams around the world.
“They are incredibly tight and they love working together. There’s no one bigger than the team. It’s a great thing to have and it seems to be quite unique to the Irish ladies. They’re known around the world as the hardest team to play against, simply because of their team spirit.”
Ireland Women’s Rugby World Cup Fixtures:
- USA v Ireland, Marcoussis, August 1
- New Zealand v Ireland, Marcoussis, August 5
- Ireland v Kazakhstan, Marcoussis, August 9
Play-offs:
- August 13
- August 17
The Women’s World Cup is organised in a similar fashion to the Junior World Championship. There are three pools of four teams, with each side playing each other once.
Try-scoring and losing bonus points count. After the pool games, the three pool winners qualify for the semi-finals along with the runner-up who has amassed the most game points. The remaining teams advance to ranking matches based on their points totals.
