Six Nations: Ireland 15 Scotland 12

Ireland women’s head coach Scott Bemand reserved special praise for Brittany Hogan after she played a major part in his side’s crucial victory against Scotland in the final round of the Six Nations at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Saturday.

Scott Bemand has said that securing qualification for next year’s World Cup finals in England is something that could have a transformative effect for women’s rugby within Ireland.

A part of the English set-up when they reached RWC deciders in 2017 and 2021, Bemand will be returning to his native land in 2025 as the head coach of Ireland thanks to their 15-12 victory over Scotland at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast this afternoon.

SCOTT BEMAND SAID that securing qualification for next year’s World Cup in England is something that could have a transformative effect for women’s rugby within Ireland.

Part of the English set-up when they reached RWC deciders in 2017 and 2021, Bemand will be returning to his native land in 2025 as the head coach of the Ireland women thanks to their 15-12 victory over Scotland at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast this afternoon. Coupled with an agonising defeat for a fancied Italian side away to Wales in Saturday’s earlier kick-off, the win saw Ireland claim third spot in the final standings for the 2024 Six Nations Championship.

Ireland had entered this tournament knowing that finishing this high would see them returning to the World Cup finals for the first time since 2017, and Dannah O’Brien’s 74th minute penalty – in front of a record crowd of 7,468 for a standalone Women’s Six Nations game on these shores – ultimately helped them to achieve this objective.

“I think there’s a bigger piece actually than just the confidence of the group,” Bemand said.

“We know where we’re heading now. We’ve got a World Cup to go and prepare for. There’s some bits we need to tidy up on, of course. We need to keep growing our game and the game doesn’t sit still long.

“You can’t just base it on trying to kick people into a corner and get what you get out of that, but there’s so much potential within the group. It changes a lot of things. There’s a lot of these girls have never been to a World Cup.

“There’s a lot of supporters out there that are now taking an interest in the game, that have never been able to support Irish women in a World Cup. We’re seeing it with crowds, they’ve grown. We’ve got an amazing opportunity now for these girls to show the influence they can have on the younger generations and people playing rugby.”

In addition to World Cup qualification, this third-place finish also means Ireland have been promoted to the top-tier for the second season of the WXV tournament – which is set to take place between 27 September and 13 October later this year.

This is a significant leap forward for Ireland when you consider that their winless run through the 2023 Six Nations saw them taking part in WXV 3 last autumn – albeit they triumphed in that particular tier of the tournament with consecutive wins at the expense of Kazakhstan, Colombia and Spain.

While their Championship rivals Wales struggled to make an impact in last year’s edition of WXV 1, Bemand welcomes the opportunity for his squad to test themselves against some of the best nations in international women’s rugby.

“We’ve always said we want to try and learn faster than anybody else. This is a great opportunity to pitch ourselves against New Zealand, Canada, Australia, if that’s how it rolls out as last year,” Bemand added.

“It’s a great opportunity for us and we’ll try and learn as fast as we can. Take as many moments from it to propel us into a World Cup. A lot of this opposition we wouldn’t have played recently, so it gives us an opportunity to pitch ourselves against people that we could meet in England 2025.”

Sitting beside Bemand during a post-match press conference in Kingspan was Ireland’s precocious right-winger Katie Corrigan. Still just 18 years of age, the Wicklow native scored an international try for the third home game in succession.

It proved to be a crucial effort as it finally got the hosts up and running in the opening minute of the second half after they had trailed 5-0 at the interval in Belfast. Considering she is still very much in the infancy of her international career – her Ireland senior debut came against France in the opening round of this year’s Six Nations – Corrigan is thrilled to already have a World Cup campaign to look forward to.

“Obviously it has been such a rollercoaster between starting the AIL, then doing the Celtic Challenge. Doing the Six Nations and then qualifying for the World Cup. It couldn’t get any better. It’s crazy and it’s so nice to get to do it with the girls. It’s such a lovely group. I’m so happy and proud of the group,” Corrigan said.

Daire Walsh

Ireland 15-12 Scotland

Daire Walsh reports from Kingspan Stadium, Belfast

DANNAH O’BRIEN STRUCK a crucial 74th-minute penalty as Ireland came from behind to record a big win over Scotland in the final round of the Women’s Six Nations Championship.

The 15-12 win seals third place for Ireland in the final Championship standings, and also ensures they have secured qualification at next year’s World Cup finals in England.

Coming into this game on the back of a heavy defeat at the hands of England, Ireland were facing the prospect of a fourth loss in this year’s Championship when Lisa Thomson’s converted effort propelled Scotland into a 12-5 lead during the early stages of the second half.

Yet Ireland rallied with a try of their own from Cliodhna Moloney and after O’Brien added five unanswered points off the kicking tee, Ireland held out for their second victory of the campaign.

Barring the unlikely scenario where Scotland claimed two bonus points in defeat and also prevented their opponents from scoring four tries or more, Wales’ dramatic victory earlier today against Italy meant a win of any kind was going to be enough for Ireland to seal a RWC return for the first time since 2017.

Yet with wins over Wales and Italy already under their belts in this year’s Six Nations, the Scots had reason to be confident of achieving World Cup qualification themselves.

A late addition to the starting line-up that had originally been announced on Thursday, Leicester Tigers hooker Elis Martin appeared at the back of a line-out maul and proceeded to dot down for an eighth-minute breakthrough try.

Helen Nelson was narrowly off-target from the tricky conversion that followed this effort, but the play was subsequently held up for several minutes due to a serious injury that was sustained by her half-back partner Caity Mattinson.

Ireland initially gained a foothold inside the Scottish half when the action finally resumed and a couple of line-out overthrows from Martin ensured they stayed on the front-foot as the tie progressed.

One of just two Ulster natives in the Irish starting line-up, Neve Jones made a break for the whitewash on 33 minutes, but was ultimately denied a third try in this year’s Championship by superb Scottish defence.

Although Martin’s early five-pointer remained the sole difference between the sides, this all changed within 60 seconds of the restart. Ireland had displayed their intent straight from the kick-off at the beginning of the second half and teenage winger Katie Corrigan was picked out in space on the right-flank.

She proceeded to touch down for the third time in as many international home games in 2024 and even though O’Brien couldn’t quite find the range of the ensuing bonus kick at an acute angle, there was a sense that Ireland might have momentum behind them at this point. The addition of front-row pair Niamh O’Dowd and Moloney either side of Corrigan’s try added fresh impetus to their pack, but Scotland responded impressively to this sucker punch.

At the end of an extended attacking spell on the stroke of 50 minutes, inside centre Lisa Thomson spotted a gap to the right of the posts to ruthlessly sprint over the line.

Nelson supplied the extras to this effort, but as the game started to open up in a more meaningful way, there were going to be opportunities for Ireland to fire back. Just shy of the hour mark, O’Brien found touch from an attacking penalty to leave Ireland within striking distance of the Scottish whitewash.

In almost identical fashion to Martin in the opening period, Moloney latched onto the resulting set-piece maul from Ireland and confidently touched down for her first international try since April 2021.

Thanks to O’Brien nailing her latest conversion attempt in the wake of this five-pointer, Ireland were back on level terms (12-12) heading into the final-quarter of an engrossing encounter. While strong carries from Aoife Wafer, player of the match Brittany Hogan and Moloney opened up the possibility of a third Irish try, O’Brien wisely opted for the posts with six minutes remaining and she coolly slotted over to give the home team the lead for the very first time.

There were some tense moments in the dying embers of the game – Beibhinn Parsons was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on in the 79th minute – but the Ireland defence held firm to claim the victory they so badly craved.

Ireland scorers:

Tries: Katie Corrigan, Cliodhna Moloney
Conversions: Dannah O’Brien [1 from 2]
Penalties: Dannah O’Brien [1 from 1]

Scotland scorers:

Tries: Elis Martin, Lisa Thomson
Conversions: Helen Nelson [1 from 2]

IRELAND: Meabh Deely; Katie Corrigan, Eve Higgins, Enya Breen, Beibhinn Parsons; Dannah O’Brien, Aoibheann Reilly; Linda Djougang, Neve Jones (Cliodhna Moloney ‘46), Christy Haney (Niamh O’Dowd half-time); Dorothy Wall, Sam Monaghan; Aoife Wafer, Edel McMahon (Shannon Ikahihifo ‘72), Brittany Hogan.

SCOTLAND: Meryl Smith; Coreen Grant, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Francesca McGhie; Helen Nelson, Caity Mattinson (Mairi McDonald ’12); Leah Bartlett (Lisa Cockburn ’63), Elis Martin (Molly Wright ’63), Christine Belisle (Elliann Clarke ‘48); Emma Wassell, Louise McMillan (Eve Donaldson ’59); Rachel Malcolm, Alex Stewart (Rachel McLachlan ’59), Evie Gallagher.

Referee: Natarsha Ganley (New Zealand).

FOLLOWING PREVIOUS OUTINGS at the RDS and Virgin Media Park in the earlier rounds of the tournament, Brittany Hogan is excited to find herself in familiar surroundings for Ireland’s final game of the Women’s Six Nations tomorrow afternoon.

Just like in the 2022 edition of the Championship, the Irish will finish off this year’s campaign with a closing day showdown against Scotland at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. From the small village of Killinchy in Co. Down, Hogan is one of just two Ulster natives in the Ireland starting line-up for the game – the other being Ballymena woman Neve Jones.

She wasn’t involved two years ago when a try and conversion from Enya Breen got Ireland past the Scots with a single point to spare, but it won’t be her first time lining out at the Ravenhill venue.

Having featured there for a Combined Provinces XV in a 19-0 win over a Wales Development XV in February 2023 during the inaugural Celtic Challenge, she returned to Kingspan in the colours of the Wolfhounds for the second season of the same competition earlier this year and scored a try in a 41-10 success against Brython Thunder.

“I’m well acquainted with the pitch. I’m well acquainted with the surroundings and where the nearest coffee shop is even! It’s nice to know my surroundings. That’s my home, so it’s really nice,” Hogan said in a press conference from the IRFU’s High Performance Centre earlier this week.

“I’ll be able to have a lot of my family come up as well because I’ve got a lot of young cousins who can’t do that travel, so it’s really nice that I’ll hopefully have a lot of family support as well.

“I kind of said to my family ‘I’m playing an international game in Belfast in the Kingspan, if you don’t come I’m going to be a little bit annoyed!’ So hoping that a good majority of them will.”

Still just 25 years of age, Hogan has been a part of the IRFU system for much of her adult life. After being handed a professional contract with the union’s sevens programme a few weeks shy of her 19th birthday in August 2017, she went on to make her debut in the Dubai leg of the World Series towards the end of the following year.

A 15s test bow eventually arrived in a behind closed doors Six Nations fixture against Italy in October 2020 and she will pick up her 23rd cap in the code at Kingspan this weekend.

“I’m well used to the HPC. It’s kind of my second home now at the moment. I just live around the corner as well. I’m well used to the set-up and playing both 7s and 15s the past couple of years. I’m part of the furniture now apparently!”

Yet it wasn’t always clear that rugby was going to be Hogan’s sport of choice. A prominent hockey player with both North Down Hockey Club and her school Down High School, she also played Gaelic football for RGU Downpatrick and Carryduff before eventually joining the ranks of Ballynahinch RFC.

In addition to featuring on the local LGFA scene in Down, Hogan also lined out for her native county at underage level. It might be tempting to think she could have been part of Down’s All-Ireland junior ladieis football championship final success over Limerick at Croke Park last August, but Hogan is adamant that playing rugby was the right decision for her in the long-term.

“Rugby wasn’t involved in my school and I wasn’t brought into my local club Ballynahinch until a little bit further on in my age and my teens. I didn’t actually start playing until I was 15. The only reason I did was because the training days happened to fall on the days that I was free. I tried a new sport and as soon as I tried it, I loved it. Never looked back then,” Hogan added.

“I don’t think it was that tough [a decision to focus on rugby]. It’s such a unique game and I think it just suits my physical characteristics much better than GAA and hockey. I just found the game for me and I seamlessly just went to it.”

Daire Walsh