‘We have to own where we are and we’ve got to get better’ – Ireland will learn Six Nations lessons says McWilliams
Ireland women’s head coach Greg McWilliams said his side will ‘go back to the drawing board’ after ending their Six Nations campaign with a fifth consecutive defeat at Edinburgh Rugby Stadium on Saturday evening.
Requiring a big victory to avoid a wooden spoon finish in the tournament for the first time since 2004, Ireland held a slender lead over their opponents Scotland for large stretches of the first half and were on level terms when Dannah O’Brien coolly converted Nichola Fryday’s 54th-minute try.
Yet a Scottish outfit that was buoyed by a bonus-point win over Italy in the previous round proceeded to register 26 unanswered points to ultimately ease themselves towards a convincing triumph. In addition to being consigned to bottom spot in the table, their sequence of results in this spring window will also see Ireland playing in the third-tier of the inaugural WXV tournament that gets underway in the autumn.
“Disappointed for the players. That’s the thing about sport. They’ve put in a great effort in the last six, seven weeks and to end like that is disappointing for them. I thought in the first half they showed signs of what they can do. I thought Scotland finished off the game well and again, I feel for the players. Sometimes sport can be kind and sometimes sport can be cruel,” McWilliams remarked in a post-match TV interview.
“It was a good contest for maybe 50, 60 minutes and I felt Scotland pulled away on us and you have to own that. We have to own our performance and look at it analytically, see what we need to do to get better.
“Because there is still lots of room for improvement and we want to be competitive in this competition. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and realise that we’ve got lots of lessons, and we’ve got to get better.”
Ireland had begun brightly and found themselves in the ascendancy for the very first time in this year’s Championship when teenage fly-half O’Brien stroked over a fifth-minute penalty. The visitors had plenty of possession during the opening period and had an excellent opportunity to cross the whitewash from a line-out maul just shy of the half-hour mark.
However, Scotland held firm under enormous pressure and finally opened their account when Meryl Smith dotted down off a similar set-piece move at the end of the opening period.
Bryan Easson’s charges extended their 5-3 cushion shortly after the restart courtesy of Lana Skeldon’s clinical five-pointer, but it looked like being game on when Ireland captain Fryday grabbed her second try of the 2023 Six Nations.
Scotland were beginning to attack with real purpose, though, and swiftly regained their advantage through prop Leah Bartlett’s excellent finish. A superb solo try by Francesca McGhie effectively placed the outcome beyond doubt, but the Scots rubbed further salt into the wounds of their Celtic counterparts with late scores from Rachel Malcolm and Chloe Rollie.
While this was the sixth successive test reversal under his watch – going back to the second game on last year’s summer tour of Japan – McWilliams remains hopeful results will eventually start to improve and that Ireland won’t find themselves in this same position in 12 months’ time.
“I’m so proud of the players. Again, lots of lessons learned in that game and we’ve got to get better, but they’re a terrific group. They’ve been through a tough Six Nations, we know that, but we are where we are,” McWilliams added.
“We have to own where we are and we’ve got to get better. I know that we’ve got a group of players that want to get better too and turn our fortunes around. We just hope it happens soon.”
Tries: M Smith, L Skeldon, L Bartlett, F McGhie, R Malcolm, C Rollie. Cons: H Nelson (3).
Tries: N Fryday. Pens: D O’Brien. Con: D O’Brien.
: C Rollie; C Grant, E Orr, M Smith, F McGhie; H Nelson, M McDonald; L Bartlett, L Skeldon, C Belisle; J Konkel-Roberts, L McMillan; R Malcolm, R McLachlan, R Gallagher.
Replacements: C Mattinson for McDonald (56), E Donaldson for McMillan, E Sinclair for McLachlan (both 72), B Blacklock for Orr, L Musgrove for McGhie, A Young for Bartlett, J Rettie for Skeldon, E Clarke for Belisle (all 77).
: L Delany; A Doyle, A Dalton, V Irwin, N Behan; D O’Brien, M Scuffil-McCabe; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; N Fryday, S Monaghan; B Hogan, G Moore, D Nic a Bhaird.
Replacements: D Wall for Moore (16), A McGann for Irwin (51), A Hughes for Scuffil-McCabe (59), H O’Connor for Hogan (65), M Deely for Doyle, S McGrath for Haney (both 69), C Nielson for Jones, K Buggy for Djougang (both 77).
: S Cox (England).