{"id":54371,"date":"2025-09-10T03:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54371\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:41:13","slug":"ireland-may-need-help-from-the-rugby-gods-to-prolong-world-cup-adventure-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/54371\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland may need help from the rugby gods to prolong World Cup adventure \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brighton is more liberal and bohemian than most English cities, with its stylish narrow streets and array of cafes, bars and restaurants. It was an ideal host for last weekend\u2019s Rugby World Cup carnival featuring Ireland v New Zealand<\/a>. As ever, there\u2019s nothing quite like being there.<\/p>\n

Thousands could, and did, plan their trip well in advance of Sunday\u2019s vibrant, 30,000-plus near sell-out. Home to most football fans\u2019 second favourite Premier League soccer team – especially when they beat Chelsea<\/a> – the American Express Stadium is a cool match-day experience. Despite most pool games being foregone conclusions, Sunday\u2019s sense of occasion typified a tournament that has been, and will continue to be, a joyous celebration of women\u2019s rugby. <\/p>\n

True, only four of the 24 games have had winning margins in single figures, and the average has been 39.5 points. This might not be drastically reduced by next weekend\u2019s quarter-finals either, especially when New Zealand meet South Africa in Exeter on Saturday and England host Scotland in Bristol on Sunday. <\/p>\n

This was always likely given the tournament\u2019s expansion to 16 teams, but if the World Cup cannot help to grow the women\u2019s game then what can? <\/p>\n

This tournament has seen Brazil\u2019s first ever points at a women\u2019s World Cup, while Fiji beat Wales last Saturday at a sold-out Sandy Park for just their second World Cup win in history.<\/p>\n

As Ireland<\/a>\u2019s quarter-final against France in Exeter on Sunday has only been confirmed at a week\u2019s notice, the Green Wave of support will not match last Sunday\u2019s. But then the capacity is less than half that of Brighton.<\/p>\n

France look an ever-improving team, with scrumhalf Pauline Bourdon Sansus player of the match in their comprehensive wins over South Africa and Brazil. She is back, and seemingly more motivated, following a suspension for criticising a referee. <\/p>\n

\"France'sFrance’s Pauline Bourdon Sansus runs in a try against South Africa at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton, on Sunday. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

True, Ireland can rightly draw encouragement from their performance in losing 27-15 to France in Ravenhill last April, when they recovered from deficits of 14-0 and 17-5 to make it a two-point game until the last nine minutes. <\/p>\n

Belief was coursing through their veins for much of that second-half. When Scott Bemand afterwards referenced a likely World Cup quarter-final against France, it genuinely seemed that Ireland could go into this last-eight match-up with justifiable optimism.<\/p>\n

Coming after the victories over Australia, New Zealand and the USA, that seemed all the truer when Ireland recorded handsome wins away to Italy and Wales in the Six Nations, albeit alarm bells sounded when a weakened side lost limply away to Scotland.<\/p>\n

Although a good team has emerged under Bemand with the return of the sevens Olympians, the injuries to Aoife Wafer, Dorothy Wall and Erin King have exposed Ireland\u2019s depth chart. <\/p>\n

This has been compounded by the departure of Hugh Hogan as defence coach after the Six Nations, following that of Declan Danaher in 2024. Hogan was a very popular coach with the players and was instrumental in the transformation of the Irish defence. <\/p>\n

This has given scant time for his replacement, James Scaysbrook, to implement a new strategy. The fault lines in the Irish defence since then were always liable to appear.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s Sam Monaghan urges team to up physicality heading into World Cup knockout stagesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The set-pieces were not especially culpable for the failure to score a point against the Black Ferns, but the lack of go-forward ball from Wafer (scorer of two tries in each of the wins over Australia and New Zealand), Wall and King were compounded by the loss of Stacey Flood in the 33rd minute. <\/p>\n

Incorporating the playmaking skills from her days as an outhalf\/inside centre and sevens player into a fullback role, Flood\u2019s ability to adapt has been a huge factor in this Irish team having more of a cutting edge out wide. That was evidenced by her two assists, off either hand, against Spain. There\u2019s no-one else you\u2019d rather have giving the final pass on the edge. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Stacey Flood applauds the fans as she is taken from the field with an injury against New Zealand. Photograph: Andrew Matthews\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Her absence contributed to Ireland failing to outflank the New Zealand defence, which drew a line in the sand with this statement performance. True, referee Hollie Davidson permitted them to play on the edge, and Ireland\u2019s attacking and kicking games could have benefited from more variety in the face of such ferocious line speed, be it exploring the blindside and opting for a chip more than once. Still, the Black Ferns made 150 tackles, won eight turnovers and held Ireland up over the line. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Naive and ponderous Ireland fail to think their way past Kiwi powerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

An abiding memory of Sunday will be the jammed return train from the stadium and Niamh Briggs, through a crowded carriage, indicating that last Saturday\u2019s article had a typo. The congestion prevented her from doing so in person.<\/p>\n

Another memory was Amee-Leigh Costigan, hands on hips, staring in frustration at the stationary rugby ball. It had veered one metre over touch-in-goal to deny her a try with not a Black Fern within 30 metres of her. One would venture that rarely has she hated the game she loves more than in those moments. <\/p>\n

But for the ball veering off its initial track from Dannah O\u2019Brien\u2019s kick, Ireland would have reduced New Zealand\u2019s lead to 26-5 or 26-7 in the 53rd minute, inside the bookies\u2019 handicap of 28 points, which was only bettered in the last two minutes. Helped by Renee Holmes\u2019 four touchline conversions out of five landed, it slightly distorted the scoreline. Lest we forget, the reigning champions have won the World Cup an unrivalled six times. Ireland have been to one semi-final. <\/p>\n

Bemand was optimistic that Flood\u2019s foot injury could be healed and patched up sufficiently for the quarter-final but it was a nasty, deep cut. Certainly, Flood would be another wounding loss next Sunday, while Wafer still hasn\u2019t played a minute in this tournament. <\/p>\n

Such is the importance of the 2025 Six Nations Player of the Tournament to this team that one can totally understand why Bemand gambled on her fitness, but his weekly updates about her look more and more overly optimistic. <\/p>\n

Put another way, if Wafer, Wall, King and Flood were all fully fit and primed, and Hogan was still in situ, you\u2019d have given this Irish team a real chance of reaching the semi-finals. <\/p>\n

Maybe Wafer will feature against France \u2013 in the best-case scenario for the first 50\/60, or the last 20\/30 minutes. Maybe Flood will too, and there\u2019s no doubting this team\u2019s unity and unwavering spirit. <\/p>\n

In which case, they still have a chance, more so than they did against a fired-up New Zealand last Sunday, but seemingly less than when pushing France so close last April. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brighton is more liberal and bohemian than most English cities, with its stylish narrow streets and array of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,18336,132,35307],"class_list":{"0":"post-54371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-ireland-womens-rugby","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-womens-rugby-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}