Ireland prepare to unleash their attack
Bemand urges her side to play with freedom and chase a morale-boosting home victory against the Italians
Daire Walsh
Following an encouraging display against France last weekend, Ireland Women’s head coach Scott Bemand has called on his troops to play without inhibition in their second round Six Nations Championship clash against Italy at the RDS this afternoon (kick-off 3pm).
Despite eventually falling to a 38-17 defeat at the hands of France in Le Mans eight days ago, Ireland more than held their own in defence for large stretches of the contest.
Aoife Wafer and Aoife Dalton also crossed over for tries in the closing stages of the action, but attacking opportunities were largely limited against a French team ranked third in the world. With Ireland aiming for a top-three finish in the Championship – which would guarantee them a spot at next year’s Rugby World Cup finals in England – there is a realisation that Bemand’s charges will need to play on the front-foot in order to get the better of the Italians in their first home game of the tournament.
“We definitely do not want to be frightened of going after wins and the environment that we’re trying to build is that we’re perfectly comfortable with that,” Bemand acknowledged. “We said last week the occasion of a full-ish France stadium with flags and noise is one of the reasons that you would play rugby. It comes with pressure, all these games come with pressure. We’re absolutely okay with that. We’ll walk towards it.”
Even though Ireland ultimately came away empty-handed from their duel with France on the opening weekend of the 2024 Six Nations, today’s opponents Italy were on the receiving end of a morale-sapping 48-0 hammering at home to England last Sunday – despite playing with a numerical advantage for 70 minutes of the proceedings.
Alyssa D’Incà and Sofia Stefan, the try-scorers when Italy overcame Ireland in Parma during last year’s Six Nations, remain key figures within this Italian side. Yet with their home record against Italy in the Championship currently standing at nine wins from nine, the Irish will be hoping for a reversal of fortunes this time.
Additionally, hopes were high at the time of writing that today’s game could attract a new record crowd for a standalone Women’s Six Nations game in Ireland – the attendance of 6,113 for a Championship opener against Wales on March 26, 2022 in the RDS being the benchmark.
Bemand has opted to make four alterations to the side that lost out to France with Sam Monaghan amongst those to come in for today’s game. She will lead the Irish team in a solo capacity as her fellow co-captain Edel McMahon has been surprisingly left out of the match day 23.
Grace Moore indirectly takes McMahon’s place in the back row, while Enya Breen and Dannah O’Brien take over from Aoife Dalton and Nicole Fowley – both of whom are included on the bench – respectively. Having played the full 80 minutes against France, Hannah O’Connor joins McMahon in being left out of the reckoning for today’s test.
Bemand insisted the absence of McMahon and O’Connor is not injury-related and in addition to increasing the depth within his squad, he acknowledged his selection is partly influenced by who they will be facing in south Dublin this afternoon.
“This is a selection for Italy, it definitely doesn’t rule people out going forward,” Bemand added. “We’re trying not to look at it and go ‘Ah well, who did what right or wrong?’ and then it’s selected based on that. It’s actually based around opportunity and the next game.”
IRELAND: L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, S Monaghan; G Moore, A Wafer, B Hogan. Replacements: S Delaney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, E Corri, M Scuffil-McCabe, N Fowley, A Dalton.
ITALY: V Ostuni Minuzzi; A Muzzo, B Rigoni, E Stevanin, A D’Incà; V Madia, S Stefan; S Turani, V Vecchini, S Seye; V Fedrighi, G Duca; S Tounesi, F Sgorbini, I Arrighetti. Replacements: L Gurioli, G Maris, L Gai, I Locatelli, B Veronese, A Frangipaini, F Granzotto, B Capomaggi.