In front of a record crowd of 7,468 for a standalone Women’s Six Nations game on these shores, Down’s Hogan produced a player of the match performance as the hosts came from behind to defeat the Scots in dramatic fashion.

As well as securing third place in the Championship table for 2024, this result also offers Ireland qualification for next year’s World Cup finals – in addition to a spot at the latest edition of the WXV 1 tournament, which gets underway in late September.

“Britt has actually been a really important player for us since Dubai [where they secured the inaugural WXV 3 title last October]. She’s probably queen of the force backs! She was getting so many dominant tackles and putting nations under a lot of pressure,” Bemand explained.

“What she has done today, it’s never as easy against better organised teams, she has fought and battled. Her offload just after half-time creates a moment and she has had to work really hard at that. I think it’s fantastic for her that she has been given that nod. It’s not an accident today, she has been backing that up in training for weeks now.”

Scotland had come into this game with their own aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup – having previously ended Ireland’s hopes of doing so for the delayed finals in 2022 – and they drew first blood with an eighth-minute try from hooker Elis Martin.

In the aftermath of this score, the play was held-up for several minutes as Caity Mattinson was treated on the pitch for what looked to be a serious injury. When the play resumed, Ireland began to get a stranglehold in the Scottish half, but were still trying to find their feet from an attacking perspective.

Ballymena woman Neve Jones was agonisingly close to crossing the whitewash on 33 minutes, but Scotland held onto their 5-0 cushion in time for the interval.

Yet Ireland finally got up and running within 60 seconds of the restart as teenage winger Katie Corrigan sprinted over for her third try in as many home games following superb approach work from Hogan. Although Scotland reinforced their authority with a converted Lisa Thomson try on 50 minutes, Ireland restored parity just shy of the hour mark.

Back into the fold this year after a much-discussed two year absence from the international scene, replacement hooker Cliodhna Moloney popped up at the back of a line-out maul and dotted down in clinical style.

Dannah O’Brien supplied the extras to this effort in confident style and when Ireland were awarded a kickable penalty in the 74th-minute, the Carlow fly-half’s dependable left boot ensured Ireland came out on top of an engrossing final round affair.

While the aforementioned WXV 1 tournament and the 2025 Six Nations will be on the agenda before this Irish group embark on a World Cup campaign in just under 16 months’ time, Bemand and his charges can now look towards the future with renewed optimism.

Last weekend’s heavy defeat to his former side England shows that there is a long way to go for Ireland to become consistently competitive with the top-ranked nations in women’s rugby, but the ex-Bath scrum-half has a clear idea of how he’d like his troops to progress.

“It’s a continuing evolution really of who and what we need to be. We’ve got to keep going after some key fundamentals in the game. Set-piece is massive with northern hemisphere teams. We need to be able to handle the ball and stretch teams. We need to be able to kick the ball,” Bemand added.

“Obviously we’ve got some good kickers. We need to just develop that side of the game a little bit in terms of variety and where and how we get material advantage from it. We’ve really had barely any time. We’re only just getting started into it. We’ve got plenty to go and it’s a great opportunity for us.”

IRELAND: M Deely; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, S Monaghan; A Wafer, E McMahon, B Hogan.

Replacements: N O’Dowd for Haney (h-t), C Moloney for Jones (46), S Ikahihifo for McMahon (72).

SCOTLAND: M Smith; C Grant, E Orr, L Thomson, F McGhie; H Nelson, C Mattinson; L Bartlett, E Martin, C Belisle; E Wassell, L McMillan; R Malcolm, A Stewart, E Gallagher.

Replacements: M McDonald for Mattinson (12), E Clarke for Belisle (48), E Donaldson for McMillan, R McLachlan for Stewart (both 59), M Wright for Martin, L Cockburn for Bartlett (both 63).

Referee: N Ganley (New Zealand).