RUGBY COLUMN – AUGUST 29
By Daire Walsh
IT was another week to forget for the Ireland women’s rugby team, as their home World Cup ended with another brace of crushing defeats.
A pool stage defeat to France on August 17 ensured that they wouldn’t be competing in the semi-finals of the tournament, and would instead enter the fifth to eighth place play-off section. As they were sixth in the rankings at the end of the opening half of the competition in UCD, they were once again drawn against Australia for their first game in Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium.
Ireland had overcome the Wallaroos with two points to spare (19-17) in their opening group game on August 9, and with the majority of the starting line-up from that tie (including Kilcullen’s Jenny Murphy) returning once again, it was hoped that the host nation would be able to give their vocal supporters something to savour.
Indeed, despite conceding an early try to Sharni Williams, Ireland moved into the ascendancy with tries from the Old Belvedere duo of Ailis Egan and Alison Miller. Out-half Nora Stapleton (who is also a club-mate of Egan and Miller) added a conversion on top of Egan’s five-pointer, and this should have been the platform for Ireland to push on for the remainder of the half.
Yet, it was the southern hemisphere outfit who dominated the second-quarter, and they eventually brought a 19-12 cushion into the break courtesy of additional tries from Sarah Riordan and Hilisha Samoa.
Ireland suffered a brace of injury set-back in the first-half when skipper Claire Molloy and Murphy forced off with concussions, and this left them in a precarious position against a confident Australian side.
Indeed, thanks to tries from Millie Boyle and Mahalia Murphy – as well as seven points from the boot of Ashleigh Hewson – the outcome had been placed beyond all doubt. Late tries by Sophie Spence and Paula Fitzpatrick helped Ireland to finish with something of a flourish, but they still fell to a 12-point defeat (36-24) in the end.
This meant that the Green Army faced a seventh place play-off with Wales on Saturday, knowing that a victory was needed if they were to automatically qualify for the 2021 World Cup. The pressure was on the team and coach Tom Tierney to deliver in this game, and an explosive interview with Ruth O’Reilly (whose injury withdrawal a week earlier had brought her international career to an end) in that morning’s Irish Times didn’t reflect kindly on the way Tierney had handled the side’s preparations for the tournament.
Tierney wasn’t entirely happy with the timing of the piece ahead of their final World Cup tie, but he did announce his decision to step down in the wake of their eventual 27-17 defeat to the Welsh. Paula Fitzpatrick, Lindsay Peat and Katie Fitzhenry all crossed over for Ireland in this game, but with their claiming four tries over the course of the contest, Ireland (who fielded without the aforementioned Molloy and Murphy) had to settle for a disappointing eighth place finish.