As Ireland head coach Scott Bemand entered the media mixed zone, his charges were heard belting out Killeagh from the nearby changing room. This wasn’t an Irish display which lived up to last weekend’s win over Japan. Yet the bare facts, seven tries, 40-plus points, a World Cup quarter-final secured, bely any immediate concerns for the performance.
The moments that allowed Spain to level the score in a six-minute first-half span, or cut the lead again off the second half kick-off can wait. As far as the Irish coaching staff is concerned.
Bemand made seven changes to the line-up for this contest. There is a narrative, perhaps overly simple, that the lack of cohesion from one week to the next was at least one factor of many which saw Ireland given more of a scare this time around than against Japan in the opener.
Bemand gave short shrift to that idea: “We’ve just won a bonus point, a bonus-point try, we’re in a quarter-final. I’m going to say we’ve got that right.”
Fair enough. Outcomes dictate narratives.
As for the game itself, Bemand acknowledged the ebb and flow, the potentially frustrating periods where Ireland lost control of the momentum. “I think we controlled it early and well, and some of the kicking in the first half was sublime, wasn’t it, in the corners and just keeping pressure on the Spanish,” he said.
“They’re a good team, Spain, and what we started to do when we went through the game, we’d have good moments, good exits, and give them an entry back. So it felt like a very flip-flop game by the end of it, where we’d get out, we’d give away a penalty, we’re back in and we’re defending 10 minutes of pick and go.
“There’ll be some bits around what a contest looks like, but we need to learn to manage that, we need to learn to deal with it a bit better, so we’ll look pretty hard at our own performance, the bits where we can grow and obviously there’s bits to grow, there always is.
Ireland’s Linda Djougang celebrates with her 50th cap after the game. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
“We’ve never professed to be the finished article, but scoring another seven tries out there again today, it shows that we’ve got some firepower, it shows we’ve got some tools that we can call upon. It’s just calling upon them consistently and more in the right space which will let us go longer and deeper into these games.”
Away from the result, Ireland were singing for a variety of reasons. One of which being Linda Djougang’s 50th cap. The tighthead was the toast of the chants inside the changing room.
“Linda’s such an important part for us,” said Bemand in praise of his tighthead. “I was actually there for her first cap, in a different dugout [when working for England], and it’s been incredible watching somebody that we could see had potential to go on and become a real force in the women’s game.
“Fifty caps takes a special player. I think it’s a few years since Ireland had a 50-cap [2017], but she’s got loads more caps in her. She can go deep in the game, she’s physical, she’s brave, she’s a great person to have on our team.
“I haven’t played with a player that I have celebrated her getting 50 caps,” said Djougang, her celebratory tassled cap pride of place on her head. “So for this group to have this opportunity to celebrate this with them, it’s just showing them and hopefully inspiring them.
“They guided me, they supported me, through the ups and downs, and from my first jersey to this number, I wouldn’t stand here if it wasn’t for them. So this is just not for me, it’s for them too, because it’s been a journey that we’ve all been through.”
One potential negative on the day is the fitness of Sam Monaghan, with Ireland’s captain limping off after 50 minutes. “She got a bang to a hip so she was moving a little more gingerly than we would have liked,” said Bemand.
“So knowing where we are and believing in the group that we’ve got around her, we made the decision to take her off and be proactive about games three to six should we get there.”