RUGBY COLUMN – AUGUST 1
By Daire Walsh
AUGUST is set to be a busy month for Kilcullen’s Jenny Murphy, after she was named in a 28-strong Ireland squad for the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup.
This will be the second time for Murphy to feature in the premier women’s international tournament, and after forcing her way into starting line-up for a third/fourth place play-off against France three years ago, she is once again expected to play a major role for Ireland in the next few weeks.
Injuries and sevens commitments had meant that Murphy appearances at 15s for Ireland had been somewhat sporadic in the past couple of years, but she was a virtual ever-present at outside centre in this year’s Six Nations Championship.
She scored a last-gasp winning try in an opening round success over Scotland, and also played in subsequent victories against Italy, France and Wales. The campaign did end in a Grand Slam decider defeat to England, but impressive form throughout should be Murphy partnering Sene Naoupu in the Irish midfield.
Murphy is one of 12 Leinster players in the final squad, while she is also amongst a strong Old Belvedere representation in Tom Tierney’s outfit. Ailis Egan is expected to be an active presence in the Irish front-row, and if Ireland want to progress to the knockout stages, the Belvo second-row pairing of Marie-Louise Reilly and Sophie Spence will need to be at the very peak of their powers.
With her injury problems now behind her, Ireland skipper Niamh Briggs is set to return in her natural position of full-back, and she may well be joined in the back-three by club-mates Alison Miller and Hannah Tyrrell. Murphy has played a lot of rugby at club and international level with Nora Stapleton – who will once again be first-choice out-half for this tournament.
With this year’s World Cup taking place in Dublin and Belfast, anticipation has been growing ahead of the opening games in UCD tomorrow week (August 9). Ireland will begin their Pool Three campaign with a 7pm encounter on that very day against Australia, who they have played on just two occasions at the 15s grade.
Both of those games ended in losses for Ireland at previous World Cups (1998 and 2006), but with completely squads on this occasion, it is unlikely that it will have much of a bearing on the way the action pans out.
They will then be back in action four days later against Japan, who they recently beat in two trial games at UCD. Competitive games between the two nations have been few and far between down through the years, although they claim an 11-3 win over Japan in their maiden World Cup in 1994.
Their final pool opponents – France, on Thursday 17th August – are familiar to the Green Army as Six Nations counterparts, and the host nation will be hoping that their nail-biting triumph over the French at Donnybrook this year will be a positive omen for them.