Ireland v Wales The most remarkable of all the results so far. Ireland played like souls possessed, to leave the Welsh looking distraught. Scott Bemand’s side showed a conviction and fluency we haven’t seen in a long while. Their last win, back in WXV3, was a hard-fought slog. This one – for most of the
Saturday Matches Scotland v England, The Hive, Edinburgh, KO 14.15 Ireland v Cymru, Virgin Media Park (previously Musgrave Park), Cork, KO 16.45 Scotland We already know the attendance at the Hive, it’s 7,774; in other words for the first time a full house. It looks as though the SRU will have to extend the capacity
France v Ireland Stade Marie-Marvingt, Le Mans France gained their expected victory in front of a packed crowd, but the Irish have every reason to congratulate themselves. Putting in a formidable defensive effort, they equalled their largest ever score against les Bleues. It looked very different at the start. Inside three minutes Pauline Bourdon Sansus
Ireland’s first outing under the new regime in the 6 Nations could hardly be more testing. But at least the opposition is missing one or two key players. France seem to be permanently short of first-choice wingers. The one uncapped player in the starting XV this time is Kelly Arbey, a 19-year-old from Stade Toulousain
An Ireland Six Nations Squad For the first time in a long while Scott Bemand has been able to select his own Six Nations squad. It is: Forwards: Claire Boles, Ruth Campbell, Megan Collis, Eimear Corri, Sarah Delaney, Linda Djougang, Christy Haney, Brittany Hogan, Shannon Ikahihifo, Neve Jones, Sadhbh McGrath, Edel McMahon (co-captain), Sam Monaghan
News comes in of a double appointment at Rugby Australia. Peter Horne takes over as High Performance Director, overseeing every aspect of rugby. David Nucifora, long-serving in the same post with Irish Rugby, joins him as HP Advisor. Ireland Nucifora has come in for a lot of criticism in Ireland for his neglect of the
Ireland have announced the two squads to make up the Clovers (Connacht and Munster combined) and the Wolfhounds (Leinster and Ulster combined). Each is 30 strong. They contain so many familiar names from recent 6 Nations duels and the WXV that you might think the Irish authoities are taking the competition extremely seriously. They won
The first-day results: Colombia 13 Fiji 67; Ireland 109 Kazakhstan 0 These runaway victories simply had to be expected. We have seen similar margins at many a World Cup of the past, and they involved far fewer nations than the eighteen contesting this brand-new WXV. The disparities were shown most clearly in that second game.
Ireland Women’s Training Squad: Scott Bemand has announced the names of 30 players to form his first training squad preparing for the WXV: Forwards: Aoife Wafer (Blackrock College/Leinster), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere/Ulster), Christy Haney (Blackrock College/Leinster), Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird (Old Belvedere/Munster), Dorothy Wall (Blackrock College/Munster), Edel McMahon (Exeter Chiefs/Connacht), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere/Ulster)*, Grace
Scott Bemand, long-serving ex-England assistant coach, has been appointed Ireland’s head coach. This excellent news comes not a moment too soon and is a fitting tribute to Bemand, who offered England unstinting service for eight years. He will be in no doubt about the challenge he has taken on. The IRFU has matched the WRU
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