Ireland aiming to finish Six Nations on a high against Scotland
He has described the campaign to date as a disappointing one from a result’s point of view, but John McKee remains hopeful that Ireland can finish the Women’s Six Nations on a high against Scotland at Edinburgh Rugby Stadium this Saturday (kick-off 7.30pm).
Following last weekend’s 48-0 defeat to England at Musgrave Park – their fourth successive reversal in 2023 – Ireland are desperately seeking to avoid a first wooden spoon finish in the tournament since 2004.
Given they are five points adrift of the Scots, and four behind Italy with a significantly inferior score difference, Greg McWilliams’ charges will more than likely require a bonus point victory to lift themselves off the foot of the Championship table. The result of their latest clash with Scotland will also have ramifications for the inaugural WXV tournament that takes place later this year and McKee – the senior coach to this Irish side – believes there are some signs that a big performance is on the cards.
“On the results, it’s been a disappointing campaign, but there’s been parts of games and things in games that we can take positivity from as well. There has been progress across the tournament. We have to go to their place and that’s a challenge,” McKee remarked at a press conference on Tuesday.
“The important thing this week is that we have to bring energy for the whole group collectively, for the whole group to go to Scotland with a positive attitude. We have to park some of those disappointments and treat it like a one-off game.
“What happened last week, yes, we learned some lessons but the reality of what we can control is what we do next. That’s how we prepare for this game and bring a winning performance at the weekend.”
While Scotland had begun the 2023 Championship with three consecutive losses of their own, they propelled themselves to fourth spot in the table with a 29-21 bonus point triumph over the Italians on home soil last Saturday. Their front-row duo of Lana Skeldon and Leah Bartlett may have accounted for four of their five tries, but McKee thinks it would be a mistake to label the Scots as an attritional side.
“Scotland play a very fast style of play, they like to play up-tempo. They’ve got some really good launch plays to get their plans into action. We’re going to have to be really switched on around our defence and not allow them to get overlaps on the edge.
“Because they’re very quick and play a fast game. In terms of defensively, we’ve got to be smart. We’ve got to play in the right parts of the field, be able to exert pressure properly.”
Although it seems likely that Limerick native Nicole Cronin will be marked absent through the injury that forced her late withdrawal from the match day squad for the England game, Ireland are expected to have a relatively clean bill of health for their trip to Edinburgh. Dorothy Wall missed out on the visit of the English to Cork with an ankle issue, but McKee confirmed that she took a full part in training on Tuesday.
Despite being replaced in the opening half against England, loosehead prop Linda Djougang is also on course to pick up her 29th senior international cap on Saturday.