IT WAS THE home game against Wales in Cork in the 2024 Six Nations when Ireland finally started to turn a corner under head coach Scott Bemand.
That victory ended a run of seven consecutive defeats for Ireland and created some much-needed excitement about where the team could go.
They were hammered by England in the next round of that Six Nations but finished the campaign by beating Scotland. They went on to shock New Zealand in that autumn’s WXV1 competition and haven’t looked back since.
The hope is that Ireland’s improvement since 2024 is now underlined as they meet the Welsh again on Saturday in Belfast.
“We were talking about that this week, actually, how the stadium felt, the ground felt,” said Bemand today.
“There was that wave of optimism, wasn’t there, about getting people on board and we’d not had a win for a while before that game. So Wales was a bit of a seminal moment for us.
“We did it by being physical, by being direct, and getting on top of them up front, which then created the platform to score some pretty reasonable tries.
“I think we’re a different animal now. I think how we’ve gone in this competition, we’ve played three, won one and lost two so far.
“The next two games in Ireland are massive for us. So for me, these next two games, starting with Wales, are big moments for us.
“Not just to beat Wales over in Ireland, and we want to win our three home games, of course we do, but actually to put a performance out there, a performance that we can go, ‘Yeah, actually we’re moving’, and a performance that people can get on the back of.
“So I think it’s important to acknowledge how that felt two years ago, but we’ve got to go and do it all again. We’ve got to get that performance out there again this Saturday.”
Ireland head coach Scott Bemand. ©INPHO
©INPHO
As things stand, the IRFU has sold around 5,000 tickets for the game at the Affidea Stadium in Belfast. 26,000 tickets have been snapped up for the game against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which probably hasn’t helped for this weekend, while Ulster have a home URC match against the Stormers on Friday night.
Ireland started this edition of the Six Nations with a frustrating loss away to England before putting Italy to the sword in Galway.
But there was more disappointment as they lost to France in Clermont in round three, having stated their belief that they could notch a long-awaited win on French soil.
So the pressure is now on to beat Wales and Scotland, the bottom two teams in the Six Nations table, at home in the closing two rounds. Ireland are hoping some of the lessons from France will help them to get it done.
“I think we called it right straight after the game,” said Bemand of that French match two weekends ago.
“We were talking around the fine margins; you get the ball down over the line, you get to the line, get the ball down over the line, you’re probably looking at a 19-7, 21-7 halftime score.
“Where we are now with the group, the level of disappointment came from the fact that it felt a bit ‘could have, should have’, again, and it’s understanding that we can go to those, those cauldrons of fire. You know, it was loud, it was, it was a real occasion. It was a proper Test match and [we could have] come out with the performance and with the result.
“So I think that the level of disappointment comes in actually feeling we should have been much closer on the scoreboard than that. And perhaps even in a position to win the game and letting those moments, those fine margin moments slip through the fingers somewhat.
“Whether it be getting the ball down over the line, whether it be kicks to corner, things like that. So we know we’re creating stuff. We believe in our game; we’ve got confidence in our game.
“So bouncing back in that sense, the cool thing about the Six Nations at this point is we’ve got two home games to go and the girls are desperate to get back out there and show the island what we can do.”
Bemand confirmed that scrum-half Aoibheann Reilly has had a setback with her return from injury and will not feature in this Six Nations.