TEAM CAPTAIN EDEL McMahon has said the Ireland women’s rugby team are ‘pushing to be better’ as they aim to leave an indelible mark on the international scene in 2025.

Following bonus points win to date over Italy and Wales – preceded by respective defeats to the heavyweight duo of France and England – Scott Bemand’s side are on the brink of a second successive third place finish in the Women’s Six Nations ahead of their final round clash with Scotland at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh this afternoon.

A single match point will be enough to guarantee this goal is achieved, but McMahon and her team-mates are eager to sign off on this year’s Championship with a third away win. Runners-up at the WXV 1 tournament that took place in Vancouver last September and October, an ambitious Irish squad are also seeking to make a big impression at the World Cup in England later on this year.

While she has a key role in ensuring standards are being driven behind the scenes, McMahon acknowledged the younger players within the set-up – such as out-half Dannah O’Brien – are also proving themselves to be leading voices in the group.

“Even Dannah there, she’s just such a solid head going into the games now. She has really grown into herself. Players are standing up and being accountable, and we’re driving the standards week in, week out with training,” McMahon remarked in advance of being named at openside flanker for the Scotland game.

“This time last year we would have been over the moon with some of those games and some of those wins.

“Now we’re pushing to be better and to be more clinical on ourselves. Because we want to be top contenders and we want to compete at a World Cup. To say that and that’s coming from the likes of 21 year olds, it’s pretty impressive.

“The trajectory of the team is huge, the growth even in the last six months from when we were in Vancouver. Take the lineout as an example, that has exponentially grown and we have revolutionised that. Hopefully we keep building on that.”

When Scott Bemand officially began his duties as women’s head coach in August 2023, Ireland found themselves in the inaugural WXV 3 as a result of finishing bottom in that year’s Six Nations with five straight defeats. After steering them towards a third-tier title in the WXV during the initial stages of his reign, the former Leicester and Bath scrum-half also oversaw Ireland’s aforementioned third-place finish in the 2024 Championship – which secured their qualification for the forthcoming World Cup finals and the most recent edition of the WXV 1.

Victories over New Zealand and the United States in the latter tournament served further notice of their potential, and there have been plenty of encouraging signs in 2025. Although she always believed there were quality players within the Irish system, McMahon stressed the increased resources that are now at their disposal have helped the squad to progress under Bemand’s watch.

“I think I’ve always said the country has talent. We’ve come together as a squad and reflected on where we’ve been in the past, but we’ve a lot of real structure and coaching put around the squad now. We’ve a lot of resources pumped into us. We can see that with our coaching staff.

“Each week, each time we come into a campaign, we set a line of where our standards are and where they go towards. Certainly going into WXV 1 from 3, from the outside, looked like a huge task for us but we just took in the information. There has always been talent in this country, it’s just how we manage it.”

Following the completion of the Women’s Six Nations Championship this weekend, the Ireland squad will next come together as a collective on 2 June. This will serve as a starting point for their preparation for the World Cup – which begins for the Irish with a Pool C encounter against Japan at Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton on 24 August.

Before then, it has been recommended by the IRFU’s staff that the players take a complete two-week break and Clare native McMahon is looking forward to getting some rest and recuperation over the next fortnight or so.

“Hopefully spend a bit of time home in Clare, down with my family. Also checking in with the AP staff. Seeing what stuff I can do to keep the body ticking over, while resting and getting away,” McMahon added.

“I have holidays planned, to get some sun, and then to get back in and start tipping on with prehab bits, gym bits. To make sure that when I come into the campaign, I’m ready to go.”

Daire Walsh

IT HAS BEEN a largely encouraging campaign to date and with this year’s World Cup in England coming sharply into view, scrum coach Denis Fogarty believes it is important for the Ireland women’s rugby team to end their Six Nations Championship campaign on a positive note.

While they have fallen short on home soil to England and France in this year’s tournament, Ireland bounced back from those respective defeats with bonus point victories away to Italy and Wales. There was some frustration with the way they played against the Welsh last Sunday, but two tries apiece from Linda Djougang, Dorothy Wall and Aoife Wafer ultimately earned them a comprehensive 40-14 triumph at the Newport-based Rodney Parade.

Heading into their final round clash with Scotland at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh on Saturday, just one match point is required for Scott Bemand’s side to finish third in the Women’s Six Nations for the second year in succession. Yet before turning their attention to the aforementioned World Cup in August and September, Ireland will nevertheless be looking to sign off on the 2025 Championship with a third win from five games.

“It’s quite important for us that we keep that momentum going. It was a tough outing probably against England, but how they bounced back has shown that growth. That resilience within the group. They were quite frustrated, which is a good thing, after Wales. The focus now is ensuring that we finish on a high,” Fogarty explained at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre yesterday.

“You see the depth within the squad is growing as well, which has helped. It even helps from a training point of view, of how competitive things are getting. It’s massive for us. We’ve spoken about it all week, of making sure that we finish this on a high.”

Aside from a final round clash in the 2023 Six Nations – when the Scots secured a convincing 36-10 victory in Edinburgh – recent meetings between Ireland and Scotland have been tight and tense affairs. In a Championship showdown at Energia Park in February 2020, an intercept try from Beibhinn Parsons (who is once again expected to miss out on this weekend’s game) helped the Irish to claim the spoils on a score of 18-14.

Whilst a last-gasp converted try from Chloe Rollie propelled Scotland towards a 20-18 triumph in a crunch World Cup qualifier at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma in September of the following year, Enya Breen’s seven-point stoppage-time salvo ensured Ireland defeated their Celtic counterparts by the slenderest of margins (15-14) in a 2022 Six Nations encounter at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.

In the same venue a little under 12 months ago, a 74th minute penalty from Dannah O’Brien squeezed Ireland past the challenge of the Scots on a final score of 15-12.

Fogarty and his fellow coaches are expecting another gruelling battle in Edinburgh this weekend, but the experience of the last 12 months makes the Tipperary native confident the Irish players will be able to cope if the game is in the melting pot late on in the action.

“We are predicting a tight match. I think that’s been another area in which we have grown over the last 12 months. We have been in tight games. We speak about it as well, to remember those times that we were in tight games. Scotland last year in Belfast, New Zealand in the WXV.

“We look back at those moments and kind of go ‘remember what that felt like, remember what we had to do to close out those games’. They are things we have spoken about and that’s what we try to do from a training point of view. Put them under those types of pressure environments, what they would face in a game. They have reacted really well to that.”

During last year’s Six Nations, Fogarty was combining his Ireland duties with work outside of coaching as a sales manager for sportswear brand Kukri Sports.

However, that all changed for the former Munster hooker last June, when he took on a full-time role with the IRFU as a national women’s scrum coach specialist and throwing coach.

This is a significant transition for Fogarty (who also recently completed his second season as head coach of The Clovers in the Celtic Challenge), but it is proving to be beneficial for both him and Ireland’s collection of forwards.

“It has helped massively in terms of touchpoints with players. It has been very important in ensuring that when we get to competitions like the Six Nations, that they are in a much better place,” Fogarty added.

“You are not chasing your tail to a certain extent to make sure that we are getting details right that I spoke about and making sure that we are in good positions so that we can add layers onto different areas of it.

“Even before that with the centralised group. Adding bits and pieces that we wanted to implement in the Six Nations, which has helped massively. I am enjoying it. This year is a busy year, but it is exciting. I am enjoying working with this group.”

Daire Walsh