Considine bids to use Italian pain for Irish gain
Rugby
Women’s Six Nations
Daire Walsh
Ireland women’s winger Eimear Considine endured a rollercoaster of emotions in their Women’s Six Nations clash with Italy in Parma last month.
The Clare native was thrilled to have grabbed a brace of first-half tries but her delight was short-lived as the Irish slumped to a first tournament defeat to the Italians.
She admitted: “You’re so happy that you scored the tries, but then at the end of the day we didn’t get the performance or the result that we wanted.
“No matter how many tries you score, it’s never your aim to lose. It was disappointing coming away from Italy,” Considine said.
“I said to a few of the girls ‘you’re never happy to lose a game’, but the Italians are such amazing people.
“It really did mean so much to them and their reaction afterwards highlighted the struggle they had to get to where they are. It was a great performance against us and they were deserving winners on that night. Just a pity we were on the other side that night.”
This 27-29 reversal was their second of the tournament following England’s comfortable opening round victory over Adam Griggs’ charges.
Ireland responded to that set-back with a bonus-point success against Scotland and Considine is confident they can deliver a repeat showing against France on Saturday (Donnybrook, 7pm).
“It was not that we sat back on our laurels a little bit against Italy, but I think we got the kick that we needed against England.
“We re-grouped and we were pretty harsh on ourselves and each other about what we needed to do,” Considine explained.
“We’ll be hurt after last weekend. It was a really disappointing dressing room. I think that will help us at the weekend and coming into the Welsh game. These are our two crucial games and we know that.”