Ireland must repay coach Griggs’ faith, says Tyrrell
Women’s Six Nations
Daire Walsh
Hannah Tyrrell is aiming to end the Women’s Six Nations Championship on a high tomorrow, when Ireland face defending champions England at the Ricoh Arena (kick-off 5.30pm).
After building momentum with back-to-back home victories over Italy and Wales, Adam Griggs’ side were surprisingly defeated by Scotland last Sunday. The Red Roses will also be looking to bounce back from a round-four reversal to France and the Ireland winger is anticipating a close contest in Coventry.
“We’re looking to really fix what went wrong last weekend and put in a good performance, because indiscipline and errors cost us last week, and our basic execution. I think everyone is just champing at the bit to go again and show what we actually can do,” said Tyrrell.
“We’re building and hopefully we’ll finish off on a high this weekend. I think they’ll be looking to make amends as well. Two teams coming off losses should be a really good contest.”
Tyrrell said it has been a mixed campaign. “We’ve had some highs and lows in this Six Nations. The girls didn’t really get the performance they wanted in France, but we got the win with Italy. We had a really good performance against Wales.
“Scotland didn’t go the way we wanted, but so far under new management I think we’re not doing too badly. We’ve another couple of years before the World Cup comes.”
Following the conclusion of this year’s Championship, Griggs’ position as interim head coach will be up for review. Though Tyrrell only returned from the sevens set-up ahead of the Welsh game, she firmly believes the New Zealander is the right man to bring the squad forward.
“I’ve only been in a couple of weeks, but I’ve worked under Adam before [with Leinster] and I think he’s a fantastic coach. He’s done quite a good job with us so far.
“It’s up to us to repay that faith by performing in matches, but he’d be a great addition to have if he was to stay on. Whatever the IRFU have up their sleeve, we’ll found out soon enough.”
Ireland will face England as part of an intriguing double-header, acting as the curtain-raiser for an U20s encounter between the same two nations.
“If we can get a win and then our 20s boys get a win after us, that will be brilliant. Start off the weekend right,” said Tyrrell.