News that Aoife Wafer is on course to return from injury in time for Sunday week’s pool decider against the Black Ferns wasn’t the only reason to wonder whether Irish eyes might be prematurely drawn towards that tie with the reigning champions.

When Scott Bemand opted to make seven changes from the side that accounted for Japan in last week’s opener it was always possible that the Ireland head coach would be asked if there was a danger in overlooking the more immediate bump on the road.

“Not internally. This is our first chance to nail that quarter-final position. We’ve absolutely gone in for it. We’ve been going for it in training, which is why it’s important that the people have had the opportunity to be allowed to compete for this position.

“So we think that there’s a couple of tactical changes, which gives us slightly different things to what we showed against Japan,” said the Englishman. “Now it’s just about getting the job done at the business end.”

Bemand’s take was only buttressed by the fact that his counterpart, Juan González Marruecos, decided that no less than nine alterations would be needed at their end after their opening defeat to the Kiwis on the same day.

It’s doubtful that Spain have the strength-in-depth to start 24 players of equal ability across two tournament games, but they have been open about the physical toll the defensive effort needed in that game against New Zealand.

Needs must.

“The Black Ferns game was very tough for us,” said the head coach. “The guys gave everything and they finished strong. We are recovering and we have full confidence in the guys who come into the team.

“We really want to fight in every minute of the game and we think we need fresh bodies to fight against Ireland.” Ireland had to claw back a ten-point half-time deficit the last time these two met in the confines of the third-tier WXV3 in 2023. Ireland have leapt forward since and it’s hard to think that Spain have kept pace.

All going well, Ireland will earn the win here that guarantees them a quarter-final slot, get game time into more players, and put further distance between them and the tormenting, and costly, World Cup qualifier loss to the Spanish in Parma four years ago.

“There was a lot of players in that competition that are here now,” said captain Sam Monaghan, who made her debut that day. “If anything, that’s always fueled us to be better, never to leave any stone unturned.

“We’ve gotten a lot of experience over the last couple of years in this squad. We’ve performed in some big games, which can give us confidence, but we know on Sunday that we are going to have to work as hard as we can to get that performance out there.” 

IRELAND: S Flood; A McGann, A Dalton, E Higgins, AL Costigan; D O’Brien, M Scuffil-McCabe; E Perry, C Moloney-MacDonald, L Djougang; E Corri-Fallon, S Monaghan; F Tuite, C Boles, G Moore.

Replacements: N Jones, S McCarthy, S McGrath, R Campbell, B Hogan, E Lane, E Breen, N McGillivray.

SPAIN: A Argudo; C Perez Perez, C Pena Hidalgo, C Cano, C Piquero; Z Perez; A Fernandez de Corres; G Silva Sierra, M Roman Mallen, E Garcia Fuentes; L Alameda, E Martinez; L Pineiro, A Peralta Baquet, VL Perez Marquez.

Replacements: C Blanco Herrera, L Delgado, M de Andres, A Puig, M Castelo, N Garcia Rementeria, A Bingbing Vergara Piqueras, L Ducher.