Cork’s Enya Breen reaping rewards of full time sevens contract
He may be overseeing her development as an established 15s international, but Greg McWilliams has praised the IRFU’s sevens programme for playing a major role in the rise of Skibbereen native Enya Breen.
Having rescued a victory for her side against Scotland in the final round of the Six Nations Championship with a late try and conversion, Breen was a key creative force behind Ireland’s opening test success on an historic tour of Japan last weekend.
While she hasn’t seen much on-field action in rugby’s other code, the former Bantry Bay youth star is currently on a sevens contract with the union. This has afforded Breen an opportunity to train on a full-time basis and 15s head coach McWilliams believes she is reaping the rewards as a result.
“Credit has to go to the sevens programme. Enya has been training in the high performance environment and you’re seeing a player who has benefited from being in a daily training environment,” McWilliams said.
“Since the Six Nations, particularly throughout the summer programme, she was first to training and she was last to leave. She was always working on her catch-pass, which was a big area that we wanted to focus on.
“We’re seeing her being really comfortable and I’m loving her action. That’s the thing. When players have good actions, sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes they’ll have bad days, but her actions means she’s going to have more better days.”
Following a difficult period both on and off the pitch over the past 12 months – which McWilliams acknowledges has built up a ‘negative momentum’ around the squad – the manner of Saturday’s 57-22 triumph at the expense of the Sakura Fifteen in Fukuroi City last weekend suggests there are brighter days ahead for this Ireland women’s side.
There was certainly a lot for McWilliams and his coaching staff to be positive about in the aftermath of that game, but he has now challenged his troops to match this performance in tomorrow’s second and final test with the Japanese at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo (kick-off 11am Irish time/7pm local time).
“Every team goes through momentum shifts. There’s no doubt that in sport, negative momentum is much more powerful than positive momentum. There is no doubt that there has been negative momentum around the group and to shake that off is tough.
“It was great to have a high last week and there is no doubt that we played great. The true reflection is if they are able to back it up this Saturday. It will be a real test of their character. Particularly when they’re going through that resilience stretch this week.”
At the same time, McWilliams is also keen to urge patience as a new crop of players start their journeys in the international game. In last weekend’s first test, the ex-USA men’s assistant coach handed out no fewer than six new caps.
In addition to former England flanker Jo Brown being handed an Irish debut for tomorrow’s clash (World Rugby’s new eligibility rules have allowed her to switch allegiances), Jessica Keating and Emma Tiiley are also expected to make their international bows off the bench.
“This weekend we will have a plan and we hope that the plan works. If it doesn’t, we will have to dust ourselves off and work from it. Between now and where we want to get to, we are going to make mistakes,” McWilliams added.
“We’re going to have days that are going to be tough and we’re going to have great days. It is all part of the journey.”