Adam Griggs not worried about Ireland’s lack of preparation ahead of World Cup qualifiers
Ireland women’s head coach Adam Griggs has said he is unfazed by his squad’s lack of match practice as they look to come out on top of a crunch World Cup qualifying tournament in Parma.
Beginning next Monday at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Ireland will fight it out with Spain, Italy and Scotland for a place at next year’s delayed finals in New Zealand. Although the runners-up will have a final shot at World Cup qualification in a subsequent repechage tournament, Griggs’ charges will have their eyes on the top prize in northern Italy.
For the vast majority of the Irish players, Monday’s meeting with Spain will be their first competitive game of 15s rugby since the Six Nations drew to a close on April 24. The six UK-based players in the current set-up were marked absent for the opening round of the Premier 15s last weekend, while Griggs revealed the schedule for the ongoing Interprovincial Championships was too close to this particular international window for any of his domestic players to be involved.
“If the Interpros were six weeks ago, you would have seen a full compliment of international players in it. We felt these last three or four weeks were the most important for us to be together as a group. I guess we just back the training that we are doing and that we know we will be prepared for Spain when we get them on Monday,” Griggs explained.
Whereas Italy and Scotland are familiar foes in the Six Nations, it is all of 13 years since Ireland faced Spain in a competitive fixture. Despite their limited knowledge of José Antonio Barrio’s outfit, Griggs is confident his troops are fully prepared for what awaits them on Monday.
“It’s a little bit of the unknown for Spain, that’s for sure. We’re lucky enough, we’ve seen them play in the Rugby Europe Championship [which they won]. We do have a good idea of their players. We’ve got a few players who are in the Premiership and there are Spanish players as well in some of those teams.
“We know a little bit about them, but I think what we’ve seen is that they do have an unpredictability about their play. I suppose what we want to do is make sure we control the game that suits us. Keep the pressure on them by doing what we’re good at. Controlling it that way.”
Aside from Leinster’s Hannah O’Connor (ruled out after breaking a bone in her hand), another notable absentee from the 28-strong Ireland squad for this tournament is Mallow native Anna Caplice. A regular starter at international level before the pandemic severely disrupted the sporting calendar, Griggs acknowledged Caplice’s exclusion was solely related to performance.
“I had a difficult enough conversation with Anna. She has got some things we feel she can still work on and be better at. I guess when you look at the back-row competition that’s there, Dorothy Wall was probably our player of the Six Nations,” Griggs added.
“You have Ciara Griffin, Claire Molloy, Edel McMahon. All with great experience. Brittany Hogan as well, who came in for the last Six Nations game and we thought performed really well and is only getting better.
“Unfortunately we can’t select everyone and we can’t bring everyone with us. She just missed out through performance really and I know she’ll go away and work hard at some of the things we’ve spoken about.”