{"id":387427,"date":"2025-08-31T16:31:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387427\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T16:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:31:28","slug":"ireland-head-coach-scott-bemand-strikes-positive-note-after-win-over-spain-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387427\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland head coach Scott Bemand strikes positive note after win over Spain \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ireland<\/a> head coach Scott Bemand<\/a> entered the media mixed zone, his charges were heard belting out Killeagh from the nearby changing room. This wasn\u2019t an Irish display which lived up to last weekend\u2019s win over Japan. Yet the bare facts, seven tries, 40-plus points, a World Cup<\/a> quarter-final secured, bely any immediate concerns for the performance. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Bemand gave short shrift to that idea: \u201cWe\u2019ve just won a bonus point, a bonus-point try, we\u2019re in a quarter-final. I\u2019m going to say we\u2019ve got that right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair enough. Outcomes dictate narratives. <\/p>\n

As for the game itself, Bemand acknowledged the ebb and flow, the potentially frustrating periods where Ireland lost control of the momentum. \u201cI think we controlled it early and well, and some of the kicking in the first half was sublime, wasn\u2019t it, in the corners and just keeping pressure on the Spanish,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a good team, Spain, and what we started to do when we went through the game, we\u2019d 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\u2019d get out, we\u2019d give away a penalty, we\u2019re back in and we\u2019re defending 10 minutes of pick and go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll 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\u2019ll look pretty hard at our own performance, the bits where we can grow and obviously there\u2019s bits to grow, there always is. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Linda Djougang celebrates with her 50th cap after the game. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never professed to be the finished article, but scoring another seven tries out there again today, it shows that we\u2019ve got some firepower, it shows we\u2019ve got some tools that we can call upon. It\u2019s just calling upon them consistently and more in the right space which will let us go longer and deeper into these games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Away from the result, Ireland were singing for a variety of reasons. One of which being Linda Djougang\u2019s 50th cap. The tighthead was the toast of the chants inside the changing room. <\/p>\n

\u201cLinda\u2019s such an important part for us,\u201d said Bemand in praise of his tighthead. \u201cI was actually there for her first cap, in a different dugout [when working for England], and it\u2019s been incredible watching somebody that we could see had potential to go on and become a real force in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifty caps takes a special player. I think it\u2019s a few years since Ireland had a 50-cap [2017], but she\u2019s got loads more caps in her. She can go deep in the game, she\u2019s physical, she\u2019s brave, she\u2019s a great person to have on our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t played with a player that I have celebrated her getting 50 caps,\u201d said Djougang, her celebratory tassled cap pride of place on her head. \u201cSo for this group to have this opportunity to celebrate this with them, it\u2019s just showing them and hopefully inspiring them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey guided me, they supported me, through the ups and downs, and from my first jersey to this number, I wouldn\u2019t stand here if it wasn\u2019t for them. So this is just not for me, it\u2019s for them too, because it\u2019s been a journey that we\u2019ve all been through.\u201d<\/p>\n

One potential negative on the day is the fitness of Sam Monaghan, with Ireland\u2019s captain limping off after 50 minutes. \u201cShe got a bang to a hip so she was moving a little more gingerly than we would have liked,\u201d said Bemand. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo knowing where we are and believing in the group that we\u2019ve got around her, we made the decision to take her off and be proactive about games three to six should we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ireland head coach Scott Bemand entered the media mixed zone, his charges were heard belting out Killeagh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,10153,104,120010],"class_list":{"0":"post-387427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ireland-womens-rugby","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-womens-rugby-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115124337653986211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}