FOLLOW ANOTHER FASCINATING weekend of action, the dust finally settled on this year’s RBS Women’s Six Nations Championship, and in their first tournament as defending champions, Philip Doyle’s Ireland occupied third position in the final table.
With tricky away games against England and France, replicating their ground-breaking 2013 achievements was always going to be a difficult task, but although their final game ended in a 19-15 defeat to France at Stade du Hameau last Friday, the visitors superbly battled back from a 16-point deficit mid-way through the second half, and made their opponents work for their fourth-ever Grand Slam.
France’s unbeaten gallop towards the title ensured that England missed out on a Six Nations crown for a second successive year, and having enjoyed an unbroken run of supremacy from 2006-2012, the triumphs of Ireland and France in the past two seasons has intensified the competition for silverware.
Indeed, the French try-line had remained unbreached heading into their fifth and final game, but UL Bohemians hooker Gillian Bourke managed to break their resistance on two occasions. Even allowing for the alterations Les Bleus coach Francis Cadene made to his line-up before the end, the very fact that Ireland pushed the eventual winners further than any team had in the competition is a sign of how far they have progressed in recent years.
In the decade that followed their international debut against Scotland on Valentine’s Day 1993, Ireland recorded a meagre 11 victories from 50 outings, but have secured 25 wins and one draw from 43 tests since the start of 2008.
The 2009 Six Nations was a major turning point for the Scrum Queens, as it was the first time that they won more Championship games than they lost, and thanks to a confidence-boosting 2010 World Cup, where they enjoyed wins over the United States, Kazakhstan and Scotland, they continued on an upward spiral that culminated in last year’s various successes.
It was hoped that winning the first Grand Slam would help to boost the profile of women’s rugby in Ireland, and the team has certainly garnered greater attention as a result. Their clinching 6-3 victory over Italy last year was the first time that the side were given live television exposure, and this continued into 2014 with coverage of their encounters with England at Twickenham and last Friday in Pau.
Playing in the home of English rugby was an invaluable experience for Fiona Coghlan and her troops ahead of their Aviva Stadium debut on March 8, and while Ashbourne RFC has become a fortress for the side in recent seasons, gracing the same field as their male counterparts was an ideal scenario for the girls to showcase their talents.
Though playing after the main attraction led to an exodus of supporters at both Twickenham and the Aviva, enough stayed behind to make it a worthwhile venture.
Similar innovations are needed by the relevant authorities to make sure that women’s rugby continues to prosper, but former Blackrock coach Doyle’s focus will be on ensuring that his squad remain competitive in the years to come.
With the World Cup in France just over four months away, he will be acutely aware that 13 of his most recent match-day 23 will be in the 30+ bracket by the end of the year, and though there is much life left in the current selection, Lynne Cantwell will shortly be joining last year’s No 8, Joy Neville, in international retirement.
In the absence of these two stalwarts, it is vital that key performers like Niamh Briggs, the aforementioned Coghlan, Marie-Louise Reilly and the outstanding Alison Miller maintain their current high standards of performance.