Moore pushing for slot as Griggs aims to finish on a high
Daire Walsh
After spending the last couple of days dwelling on a chastening home defeat at the hands of France, Ireland women’s head coach Adam Griggs has now switched his attention to finishing a restructured Six Nations Championship on a high.
Having begun their campaign with a convincing Pool ‘B’ triumph over Wales, a comprehensive 56-15 defeat to the French in Donnybrook last Saturday brought Ireland crashing back down to earth. However, there is a silver lining for Griggs’ charges in the form of a third/fourth place play-off against Italy this weekend.
“We spoke about it as a group. All our coaches have played rugby. We’ve all been in that situation before, where things don’t go your way. The mind and the body are pretty beat up in the early part of this week, but that’s for us as a group to make sure we can bounce back,” Griggs remarked yesterday. “It probably would have been very frustrating for us if that [the France game] was our last performance.
“We’ve got to look at the positive side, that we have a chance to rectify some of the things that went wrong and really try and keep it positive. Because we know we are better than last week.”
Following their comprehensive 45-0 bonus-point success over Wales, Griggs kept faith with the same starting line-up for the visit of France to Dublin last weekend, but the New Zealand native revealed he is likely to make alterations for Saturday’s game.
“We’ll see how we train in the early part of this week, before we make those decisions. At the same time, we have to keep an eye on the future as well. You’re there to perform. If you don’t, we’ve got other players that are ready to step up.”
Of the five uncapped players that were named in the 35-strong squad for the tournament, Grace Moore is the only one yet to make her Ireland debut in this window. While acknowledging she is still trying to find her feet at the higher grade, Griggs said the Railway Union back-row is pushing hard for inclusion in his match-day squad.
“It’s just making sure she understands what it takes in terms of preparation in a Test match week. Again, it’s very different to just coming into camp on the weekend. There’s a lot more homework that has to go on when you’re preparing for opposition,” Griggs added. “Grace is taking that with both hands at the moment. She has been training really well and she fits into the group well. There’s every chance.”