ALTHOUGH THEY SHIPPED a heavy defeat to England in their Six Nations Opener at Donnybrook on Friday evening, Ireland can take huge encouragement from a number of aspects of their performance moving forward in this campaign.
One big positive — probably the biggest — for Ireland was the performance of the scrum, and that all filters back to one man: Mike Ross.
The former Leinster and Ireland prop has been impacting some of his vast knowledge and experience on the youthful squad since coming on board last January.
While it was a tough night all round as a professional England outfit ran riot for the most part and the scoreline finished up 51-7, Ross was pleased with how the scrum went.
“Yeah, I’ll always sleep well when the scrum goes well,” he reflected. “We have worked on it for a while now and the girls really buy into what I want to do.
“I’m kind of handing over ownership to them now to drive the standards and I’m just keeping an eye on it.
“I have been pretty pleased with how that is going but at the same time, losing 51-7 to England at home is not the result that we wanted.”
We’ll get to how much that beating by the Red Roses really stung shortly, but first it’s important to focus on the positives for Adam Griggs’ side, and the scrum is definitely one.
Their scrummaging has come on a huge amount since Ross joined the backroom team as coach for that facet, but he’s modest when asked about how much he’s seen it improve himself.
“I think we have taken some of the good work that was done beforehand and built upon it,” the self-confessed scrum nerd continues. “We have an attitude with the scrum that it’s not just a method to reset and get the ball back into play.
“It’s a way you can stamp your physical dominance upon the opponent and use it as a weapon. That’s really what we have driven the standards towards.”
To have a name like Ross involved is a huge boost and he’s bedded in nicely with the squad since making the move into coaching. He told The42 last year that professional coaching is not for him but it’s clear to see that he’s enjoying this post.
“That’s been a learning curve,” he says when he’s asked if the coaching comes easy. “At the start I was actually going into the scrum myself, which Lindsay Peat really enjoyed!
“It’s just about being able to translate what you did instinctively as a player into it as a coach.
“Luckily enough I had a some good coaches throughout my career who helped me with that, like Greg Feek and John Fogarty. I have taken bits from what each one of them have given me and used my own interpretation.”
“Very much so, so far,” he adds on his enjoyment. “It’s kinda different to coaching lads. There have been a few adjustments around that but they are a pleasure to coach.
“Honestly, they are. They are like sponges. They soak up everything I tell them and keep asking me more questions.”
The Corkman retired from rugby at the age of 37 in 2017 after many, many good days in the green jersey, and with Harlequins and Leinster. With the good days come bad, how and ever, and those darker outings hurt as a player.
They also sting as a coach, as Ross has come to know, and Friday definitely was a bad day.
“It did sting because we had really built up towards that game,” he concedes. “We trained well during the week but ultimately England just out-classed us.
“We didn’t match their physicality. They were offloading out of tackles, which was brilliant at times and that really hurt us.
“But at the same time and I said it to the girls afterwards, I was in an Irish side that went down to New Zealand in 2012 and lost 60-0. Here we are a handful of years after and we are beating them so don’t get too down-hearted about that.
“I think we are progressing but the other thing is, a lot of the women have under 10 caps. I mean, Claire Molloy has more caps than the rest of the squad put together.
“There was a huge churn in personnel after the last World Cup and we have to try and replace that experience. Sometimes that is going to hurt and sometimes you have to learn on the job.
“I mean Sene Naoupu, if you take Alisa (Hughes) out, she has more caps than the rest of the backline put together,
“It’s a harsh environment, international rugby. You are always learning and I think ultimately they will be the better for it.”
In early January, the England Women were handed 28 full-time professional contracts by the RFU and that, of course, was a major talking point in the lead-up to — and aftermath of — Friday’s game.
While Ross has seen Irish men’s rugby change to professional first-hand, he has hopes that the women can follow the same path eventually.
He’s been there through dark days, that 60-0 hammering in New Zealand the prime example, and he can see similarities. One day, the women’s game will be a level playing field, he hopes.
“Where we are right now, I believe is similar to the men’s game in 1995 where we are trying to decide what’s the future going to look like.
“Ultimately, at the start of professionalism, you had a lot of Irish players heading away over to English clubs because there wasn’t he same structure in place over here as there is today.
“We have to look at that and decide what how we are going to structure it because I suppose there isn’t a structure here to sustain say 60 professional women’s players.
“But maybe we can do what England have done and get to 15 or 20 or 30 and just keep building that.
He adds: “We’re not going to be as physically strong as the men but there is no reason why we can’t be as skillful.
“I think that’s what we have to aim for and really drive the standards up all around. And I am seeing that every day.
“We have girls coming in with all time best body composition scores, best fitness scores so they are putting the work in and they are seeing the dividends it’s paying.”
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