Other revelations in the piece were that some players had been purposely left out of team emails with some not even being told they had been dropped for a game. It was also suggested that the Irish players weren’t properly consulted over the union’s decision to switch from white to navy shorts over period concerns and that the idea of hybrid contracts weren’t taken under consideration when full-time deals were being negotiated for female players last year.

While the revelations in this investigative article are quite damning, McWilliams insisted much of it is ‘historic’ and he is satisfied that he has the resources at his disposal to do his job.

“I read the article. I think it would be wrong of me to not read the article and a lot of it is historic. The same things that you could have talked about last year. When I met David Nucifora in 2021, I started on the 1st of December and he outlined a plan. Everything we talked about, we’re on track. That’s all we can focus on,” McWilliams explained in a video call from Italy.

“I was the only full-time staff member on the 1st of December. We now have seven full-time staff members. We have eight contractors that come into us for competition week. We have eight new employments along our pathway and our centres of excellence.

“There has been a massive growth in that time and to be honest with you, talking about things historically we can’t control. We can’t control the external noise. It’s an interesting article, but again it’s nearly irrelevant at this stage. We’re moving forward. We’ve got a great plan and we’ve got good resources around it.”

While there are historic details within The Telegraph’s piece, an unnamed Irish player is quoted as saying that members of the squad were denied access to protein supplements in advance of last year’s summer tour of Japan. McWilliams – who refuted suggestions that the IRFU are a sexist organisation – was unaware of this specific occurrence and believes that lessons need to be learned if this was the case.

“We learn all the time. We now have a full-time nutritionist in Emma Brennan, who is brilliant. We didn’t have one before. Bringing up an article about someone not getting protein, if that’s something that I did wrong, I’m not aware of it and I’ll own that. Again we’re always trying to evolve and get better.

“That’s something I was unaware of. Obviously I need to be better and be on top of things like that. The story that happened pre-Japan, that’s something we’re going to have to be better at if that is the case and we’ll own that. Of course.”

As for the game on Saturday itself, McWilliams has opted to make three changes to his starting line-up from the heavy defeat to France at Musgrave Park 12 days ago. Lauren Delany, Anna McGann and Ailsa Hughes have all been drafted into the first 15 and McWilliams is hopeful that his charges can improve on their performances in the opening two rounds of the Championship.

“We do believe that with the plan we have going in and the selection we’ve made, that we’re ready to give it a good go and we’re confident going into the weekend. We’re looking forward to seeing how they react to improvements not only over this week, but we saw from Wales to France,” McWilliams added.

“There was an improvement in certain aspects of our game and they need to keep improving. We need to evolve how we both attack and how we defend. There’s a good plan in place and I think everyone is just excited. That’s what we’re focusing on is Italy and what we do in that Italian game.”