Wall: ‘It’s a very complex job and I don’t know everything yet at all, but it’s good to learn’
Dorothy Wall has said that Ireland women’s rugby head coach Scott Bemand and his backroom staff are leaving no stone unturned in their preparation for a Six Nations Championship opener against France at Stade Marie-Marvingt on Saturday week.
In addition to the work being done behind the scenes by High Performance Culture and Leadership Lead Sean Ryan – who was appointed to this role on the back of a culture and leadership review that was conducted in the wake of last year’s Six Nations campaign – the Irish squad are also expected to get a sense this week of what it will be like in the Le Mans venue on March 23.
“There’s no bigger test than France away your first game in the Six Nations. It will be a true mark of where we are. I think we’re getting some noise training in to prepare for the French crowd, because no one quite does it like France in terms of noise and morale, and everything. It’s exciting, it’s a challenge,” Wall explained at a media meet and greet at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre last week.
“The last Six Nations, the only way to go hopefully is up. We’re in a better place as a team, as a culture. There has been a huge amount of work done with Sean Ryan and building our own identity. How we train is how we want to play. There is a lot of work gone in behind the scenes.”
While the 2023 Championship saw them finishing at the foot of the table after five successive defeats, there is a positive mood around the Irish camp ahead of their aforementioned clash with France. A few months after finishing a lengthy, trophy-laden stint as lead coach of the England women’s team, Bemand guided Ireland to victory at the inaugural WXV 3 in Dubai last October and Wall is hopeful she and her team-mates can build on this success.
“It’s definitely refreshing to be back with the group, especially after what we built in Dubai. To be honest, really looking forward to getting back and building more on from what we had already succeeded with in Dubai. A few new really good additions, new coaching members. It’s all very positive.”
Having initially featured in the back-row for Ireland, Wall found herself starting in the second-row for Ireland’s WXV 3 triumphs over Kazakhstan and Spain in Dubai. The Tipperary native also donned the number five jersey as captain of The Clovers in the second edition of the Celtic Challenge (which reached its conclusion at the beginning of this month) and she is gradually starting to feel more comfortable with life as a lock.
“It’s definitely a new challenge and learning more about the line-out, rather than just being a line off the line-out. It’s a very complex job and I don’t know everything yet at all, but it’s good to learn and you take from the likes of Sam Monaghan and Hannah O’Connor, who have been running line-outs for years. It’s a great new challenge,” Wall added.