{"id":424453,"date":"2025-09-14T19:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T19:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424453\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T19:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T19:45:16","slug":"heartache-aplenty-but-few-recriminations-as-ireland-fall-to-france-in-quarter-final-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424453\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartache aplenty but few recriminations as Ireland fall to France in quarter-final \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was pride aplenty as well as heartache within the Irish squad after losing their Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-final against France 18-13 in Exeter. There were also surprisingly few recriminations despite on-field accusations and clear evidence of biting by one of the French players. <\/p>\n

Footage showed Aoife Wafer \u2013 who had a storming game on her long-awaited return to the Ireland<\/a> team for her first outing since April after undergoing knee surgery \u2013 attempting a jackal after tackling Axelle Berthoumieu in the 42nd minute. <\/p>\n

The French blindside then appeared to bite Wafer\u2019s left forearm, even holding her by the wrist, following which the Irish backrower could be heard claiming to have been bitten three times. Ireland captain Sam Monaghan asked referee Aimee Barrett-Theron to have the TMO check the incident, to which the South African official responded: \u201cThe TMO will sweep for a bite. I didn\u2019t see anything live.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland World Cup dreams dashed with quarter-final defeat to FranceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ireland were leading 13-0 and had France \u2013 who ultimately picked up three yellow cards \u2013 been reduced to 14 players at that point it could have had a significant impact on the outcome, albeit allegations of biting tend to be proven on review of a game rather than in play, even with such compelling evidence.<\/p>\n

Both Monaghan and Ireland head coach Scott Bemand<\/a> spoke of their pride in Ireland\u2019s performance, Monaghan remarking: \u201cThat\u2019s what I asked from the girls at the start of the game. \u2018Don\u2019t let a moment get by you. Leave everything you can out there.\u2019 And I truly believe we did.<\/p>\n

\"IrelandIreland captain Sam Monaghan reacts in the final seconds of the game. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see it in the players\u2019 faces, they are heartbroken, but it\u2019s such a proud feeling. I couldn\u2019t ask for more from them. We gave it our all, we brought them to 90 minutes, probably, in the end with the five minutes from the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud of this group. It is a young group. Only one player [Cl\u00edodhna Moloney-MacDonald] out of the 32 has experienced a World Cup before. If you do look back two years ago, we were competing in WXV 3, and we were very, very close to winning a World Cup quarter-final there. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019re gutted, we\u2019re heartbroken. We know we could have had that game, but we\u2019ll hold our heads high, rebuild and grow together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stressing it was a tough Test match in difficult conditions and Ireland embraced the occasion better than they might have done a couple of years ago, Bemand said this young team will improve further over the next World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Meet the 32-strong Ireland squad heading to the Rugby World CupOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance are a good team. They\u2019re full of big athletes. They\u2019re strong and in the conditions they managed to get a little bit of pressure on our first pass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go back and review it. We\u2019ll take the learnings of how we get on top of teams and how to close out points when we get into their 22.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Six Nations will soon come into view, when Ireland will have the incentive of hosting their round-five game against Scotland in the first women\u2019s stand-alone game at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Neve Jones and Emily Lane watch during the final minute of the game at Sandy Park. Photograph: Ben Brady <\/p>\n

Bemand is under contract for another year and appeared to suggest he would be keen to lead Ireland through to the next World Cup in Australia pending conversations with the IRFU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of what we\u2019re doing, it doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019re anywhere near the end point. The story\u2019s still being written and if it\u2019s me to go forward, if I\u2019m the right fit, if it works for myself and the players, then brilliant,\u201d said Bemand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep talking about taking this next step and cracking into the World Cup contenders. It\u2019s gutting to not do it today, that\u2019s the reality of things, especially when we look back on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were opportunities to take today. I believe we were going to score at the end of that game today because I\u2019ve seen the girls practising it, I\u2019ve seen what they\u2019ve been doing in training, the amount of pressure that we\u2019ve been able to deal with in training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to happen at some point, and if it\u2019s me, that would be brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was pride aplenty as well as heartache within the Irish squad after losing their Women\u2019s Rugby World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,10153,120010],"class_list":{"0":"post-424453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-ireland-womens-rugby","12":"tag-womens-rugby-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115204373045765550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424453","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=424453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}