Tides of change

Danny Brosnan

My oh my, what a difference a year can make. This time last year the dust had settled from a wooden spoon in the six nations after a 36-10 loss to Scotland. On Saturday we beat Scotland 15-12, finished third and and are guaranteed a spot in the women’s world cup next year in England.

But how’d we go from this low point to this in a year? What’s changed between a Greg McWilliams and a Scott Bemand team? Was it something as simple as a few changes in overall tactics? That’s part of it yes. But, something else was in the team this tournament that was missing last year.

Walk the line
2023 six nations. The first one after a covid delayed women’s rugby world cup, it was meant to be held in 2021 but was held in 2022. Had five of the six nations team, all but us. At first it seemed that the tournament had helped gel the other five nations better than us. After we hadn’t played internationally since the two match tour of Japan in August, a historic first ever tour for the women’s team that we drew one match a piece. Yet, that didn’t seem to be a decent reason as to why we didn’t click. Something else was missing.

It’s in your head.
Upon rewatching some of the games from last season’s six nations, something that brought back some bad feelings and memories like after a night out and seeing the group chat the following day. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it, then it hit me harder than a Will Skelton tackle on Craig Casey. It wasn’t the fact we’d a bad players or coach or game plan. No, no, no, it was the physiological side of it. We were nervous, uncertain and unsure of what to do. This wasn’t just evident on the field, but came across in some interviews. The words were right, the message was right. Yet the tone and body language was a lot of things, but it wasn’t matching the message or words.

How’d it come to this?
How did we get to this spot so quickly and sharply?. Was it Anthony Eddy handling of the women’s side of the game? Greg McWilliams “Without getting too corny, I’m kinda like their dad and they’re my daughters.” Comment. There definitely factors along with the changing room fiasco from the women’s interprovincials and RWC qualification of 2021. Adding in the pro-contracts, it was a situation that had to come to a head at some stage sooner than later.

The blame game
Do I blame McWilliams for this? No, no I don’t. Personally I think when he took over from Adam Griggs, it was just a series of knock on events. One that had been on the boil from years of underfunding, mismangement and over expectations from limited resources from the IRFU. I will say that, personally, I think McWilliams was a good coach in the wrong position at the wrong time. Can he get things done? Yes, I think he can. Is he head coach material? No I don’t think so. Add in the fact that there was a report of sexism within the IRFU and Anthony Eddy stepping down in March 2023 adding to all the off field chaos.

The winds of change.
Once the 2023 six nations had ended and Ireland were proping up the table without a point to there name, McWilliams had stepped down from his role as head coach. To make matters worse the IRFU were saying he was still employed and head coach of the national women’s team. Something that took a week to clarify from both sides that both parties had parted ways. Add into the fact that the captain he chose, Ciara Griffin successor Nichola Fryday, decided to retired internationally within three months of him stepping him down as head coach brought more uncertainty to a turbulence period for the women’s game. Especially with no coach or captain getting closer and closer to the inaugural WXV’s competition.


Scott free to run it?
Six days after Nicola Fryday retired internationally, Scott Bemand took over from McWilliams as Irish head coach on July 27th. He’d just enough time to get his backroom team together before WXV tier 3 competition.

First steps back up.
After traveling to Dubai and acclimatizing we got this tournament underway. Our largest ever win kicked us off when we beat Kazakhstan 109-0, another win in the second round against Colombia 64-3 proved a good way to get to grips with how Bemand wanted to play. Unfortunately, and this isn’t a knock on the two teams, but it was more a kin to a training matches for us than actually competitive fixtures. But our last match in this competition, a repeat of the 2021 RWC qualifier, was going to be the test. Two years prior Spain beat us 8-5, we dually returned the favor and won the match 15-13 after being behind for most of the match.

Testing the theory.
One of the two hardest opening games for the women’s six nations, an away trip to France. Yes some uncertainty was in the squad, yet in it was a confidence. Almost a mentality of get the basics right and the rest will come. We left France losing 38-17. Yet we had scored more in one match than in the first four rounds of the previous competition, eight more points and we would pass last year’s overall tally. By the time the 70th minute had come against Italy we’d past that tally. When the final whistle blew we’d our second loss, but a losing bonus point. One more point than the zero points we had last year. Along with getting to grips with the plan and confidence continuing to grow.

The highs and lows
Wales paid us visit in cork and in a complete reversal from the 31-5 loss to them the previous year, it was a 36-5 win for us. We were completely different teams in both of those matches. From the shy, nervous, confidence lacking team to one that was almost at polar opposite. It was like a lump of coal had become a diamond in the rough, still needs work yet the potential can be seen.
Unfortunately the bonus point win against Wales looked like a false dawn and we may begin to regress a bit.
20 minutes in and things were looking tough and only got tougher against a 14 try rampaging red roses team. That hard loss, 88-10, highlighted the gulf between the teams. But I’ll give credit where credit is due, this was the first proper test of Bemand and his system, they played as best the could and did something they haven’t done in the previous two campaigns and that was get points against England. That shows better go forward ball, something we were lacking the previous two years.
But it was Saturday afternoon that really showed the work was in progress but headed in the right direction. A 15-12 win over Scotland in a game that wasn’t the greatest match to watch, yet the win was etched out. A win that brought us to third in the table, a WXV’s tier 1 competition and more importantly an automatic place in next year’s RWC.

Turning point
The big question is what was the changing point for this. Anthony Eddy stepping down from overseeing the 7s and women’s game? David Nucifora setting to step down as IRFU director of performance at the end of the season? Greg McWilliams being replaced by Scott Bemand? All the lows of the previous two years, the changing rooms at the interpros in 2021, our first time not appearing at a RWC since 1994? Have the new professional contracts helped? The plethora of other off field issues?
I think it’s a combination of all those. The women’s game was knocked down, but not knocked out. Yet the women’s 15s are coming up from a low point, much like the men’s 30 years ago, while there 7s side is flying high.
The good points are beginning to shine.