The beginning of an important year for Ireland - column

With Ireland’s first Test game of the new season on the horizon, there has been plenty going on behind the scenes in the form of exciting new prospects plus challenges to overcome.

As Ireland prepare for their WXV 1 debut at the end of the month, they head to Belfast this weekend to take on the Wallaroos in a game that marks the beginning of the celebration of 150 years of Irish Rugby.

A welcome inclusion for fans of the women’s game who haven’t always felt that women’s rugby has been a priority of the IRFU.

It’s not so long ago since the controversy surrounding the launch of Canterbury’s new jersey where male players were used alongside female models.

In contrast, the latest images and promotional material by Canterbury featured an almost even balance of both female and male players to launch this season’s jerseys and training kit and it looks awesome.

In addition, the game versus the Wallaroos this Saturday will feature a one-off commemorative jersey that will be seen for the first time when the Irish players take to the pitch in Kingspan Stadium. The men will get the chance to wear the same jersey in their own 150th celebratory game when they play the Wallabies in November.

In further challenges to gender balance within Irish rugby, we see that head coach Scott Bemand has called in his own staff to complete his coaching ticket.

The team is made up of: kicking coach - Gareth Steenson; defence coach - Hugh Hogan; forwards coach - Alex Codling; and scrum coach - Denis Fogarty.

Former Grand Slam-winning second-row Mazzie Reilly is the sole female coach involved through the World Rugby Internship programme. A key resource and pathway to get female coaches into high performance, and judging by Bemand’s selection of all male coaches to take this Irish team into their next chapter, it’s badly needed.

Ireland had further announcements in recent weeks with 37 players receiving full-time rugby contracts. Of those, 24 have been called into the squad that is preparing for the test against Australia.

There are still a handful of UK-based players, and many that are key to this squad, that are not in receipt of a full-time contract due to their club commitments across the PWR.

Bemand had plenty of homework to be doing to make his squad selection across a number of different playing groups, including UK-based players, sevens players who represented Ireland at the Olympic Games, and players from Connacht, Ulster, Leinster and Munster who have all been putting their hand up for a green jersey throughout the Women’s Vodafone Interprovincial Championship.

The challenge is that only one of these groups has played any rugby yet this season and that is the Interpro players. Premiership clubs are still in preseason and sevens have been taking some well-earned rest after their time in Paris.

Therefore, Bemand has a lot of groundwork to get through with only one test game to get this team prepared for their WXV 1 debut. With the likes of Fiji and Japan in town and neighbours like Scotland, Wales, France, Italy and Spain, one wonders why a second test or training game hasn’t been pencilled in to dish out as many minutes as possible.

A further playing group has also been in consideration in the form of the new U20 Irish squad who played in their first Six Nations championship last season. Those players continue their development across the provinces by joining new specific pathways in women’s rugby and a handful of whom have been invited to join the selected squad of 35 as “training panellists”.

Anyone watching the Interpro series will know that young players like Chisom Ugwueru and Faith Oviawe have as good a chance as any of the full squad members as they proved they could light up the turf as they did for Munster and Connacht respectively.

The squad also sees the return of Munster full-back Eimear Considine who last played for Ireland in 2022. An amazing comeback for the new mother who recently brought little Caolán into camp to visit the team.

Similar to Ashleigh Orchard who had baby Arabella as the sevens team mascot throughout the Olympic Games, it’s amazing to see mothers continue to be part of rugby especially when those players are supported to play and perform at their best.

With many things to get excited about, the Irish camp has also had its woes where co-captain and second-row powerhouse Sam Monaghan has been ruled out for a considerable amount of time due to an ACL injury. Her leadership and ball-carrying impact leave a gap that I know many others in the squad will be fighting over each other to fill until her return.

This Saturday, 14th of September, Australia will be coming to Northern Ireland with possibly a chip on their shoulder that they too aren’t heading to Vancouver to kick it at the highest level of WXV having just missed out on qualification to USA late last season.

Instead, they head to South Africa where they will certainly have their eye on taking home silverware from the WXV 2 tournament and send a message that the top division is where they want to be. Australia have been showing no lack of ambition in their development as they also have an Australia ‘A’ team in Samoa playing a match this weekend.

With less than one year to go to the Rugby World Cup, it is a huge year for women’s rugby. With fixtures, contracts, pathways, marketing, support and every element in between ramping up, everyone wants to be right in the thick of it.

Ireland, who did not qualify for the World Cup in 2021, have as big a point to prove as any that they want to be central to this process.

Let’s see how this exciting Irish team goes!