Rianna Jarrett says Katie McCabe telling manager Vera Pauw that fresh legs were required late in Ireland's goalless draw with Nigeria at the World Cup was "quite normal".
There were around 20 minutes of normal time to play in Monday's game, Ireland's final match of the tournament, when captain McCabe was seen in a tense conversation with Pauw. The Ireland manager revealed in her press conference that McCabe had asked for substitutions to be made.
"In a lot of teams that I have played in, managers have conversations with their captains that they'd have with their assistants, that they'd have with their other coaching staff," Ireland international Jarrett, who has not been involved with the squad for the past 18 months, told the RTÉ Women's World Cup podcast.
"Captains are heavily involved in the dynamics sometimes. Managers do turn to their captains for their thoughts and opinions. I do believe that Vera links in with Katie on a lot of things.
"What happened [against Nigeria] isn’t out of the norm. I think it happens in a lot of teams. Just because the player asks for something to happen, it doesn’t always mean that the manager makes that decision.
"That was Katie's opinion and I think the opinion of others watching on from the outside, that players did look a little bit leggy. Obviously, Sinead Farrelly hasn't played 90 minutes for a long, long time. Obviously, she's only just come back to professional football. She's just only just come on to the international scene. I thought she had a very, very good game [against Nigeria]. I thought her and Katie worked well together.
"In terms of Katie looking for fresh legs on her side, it was probably to help her get on the ball a little bit more.
"Vera touched on that, which was why she put Denise (O'Sullivan) back in the middle because we weren't switching the play. If you look at the game from different angles, in the second half you can see Katie with her hands in the air screaming for the ball to be switched. Katie was in the game so much in the first half and arguably in the second half, she was barely on the ball. I don't see anything wrong with it."
31 July 2023; Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe speak to her team-mates and team staff after the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 Group B match between Republic of Ireland and Nigeria at Brisbane Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Jarrett added that the "biggest issue there is how it was handled".
"The journalists and the media had every right to as that question but I do think it was something that should have been dealt with in-house," she said.
"A lot has been blown out of proportion. Vera went into full detail and she was quite blunt in terms of what she said and how she felt about it.
"That's Vera and how she deals with the questions, how she deals with the media. We've had those conversations throughout about how she's dealt with post-game interviews in terms of addressing the stakes and dropping people's names into things. I don't understand why people expect it to be any different.
"It probably is something that shouldn't have done to the media, and shouldn't have been addressed in that way."
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— Katie McCabe (@Katie_McCabe11) July 31, 2023
Shortly after the press conference, McCabe tweeted a zipped mouth emoji, with the obvious inference being that the Arsenal player was referring to the row between her and Pauw, and what had been said by the Ireland manager following the match.
"Obviously, the timing of it and how it comes across, people have jumped to their own conclusions," said Jarrett.
"I've been on Twitter and seen all the comments unfold. The public are quite 50-50 in terms of where they stand."
See Also: Courtney Brosnan Reveals What Was Said In Ireland Huddle After Nigeria Draw
