It was finally Ireland's day in the sun last Saturday after a 30 point thumping of an experienced Welsh side in Virgin Media Park.
Speaking to the media after the game head coach Scott Bemand expressed his delight for the girls and explained how hard they have been working these past number of weeks to finally take that all important step towards their first win in 2 years.
I'm delighted for the girls to be honest. We keep talking about how hard everyone trains, we talk about our intensity and we knew we were under a process, so it is finally nice to get a win. We'll try not get too carried away with it cause it is the next step but it is great for the girls to put a performance on, a winning performance, and to give the Irish crowd something to cheer about.
Continuing on from this Bemand noted how this win wasn't easy but they knew it was there for them they just had to control Wales in their most explosive area, their maul.
We've always got a performance in us. We knew that the Welsh have got some strengths, there was a match defining moment about 2 and a half minutes in when we encountered their first maul and the forwards kept them out. You know it's funny what momentum and confidence can do to a group. I'm so pleased for the girls that they were able to prove to themselves that they could do it.
But Bemand was quick to note that the competition isn't over yet and that there's space for them to drop the ball as they continue to improve week on week.
We seen it coming, we knew it was coming but look it's only a game and there's still 2 more to go so we'll dust ourselves off pretty quick and we'll look at what we did well and try feed off that. We'll also look at what we need to tidy up and see how we can get better again. And then we go to Twickenham this weekend.
Young Katie Corrigan also had a momentous day in Virgin Media Park as she scored her first ever try in the green jersey after blocking a Welsh kick just minutes into the 2nd half. Bemand couldn't help but beam as he recounted the try and how important it was to get on the scoreboard after the break
Can we talk about Katie's try? Scoring after half time is a really really important thing. So you go in to the dressing rooms and you talk about resetting and whether the game plan is working. And we decided it was and we wanted to be a side that score points on defence as well so Katie getting a charge down and getting a 7 pointer straight after the break was a really big moment.
With a trip to Twickenham looming, a team Bemand knows all too well, the team know what they will be faced with as they line out against a side that has been professional since 2019. It is going to be an extremely tough test but the girls in green aren't shying away from it.
It's going to be a step up in Test rugby, isn't it? We know they've got a good pack, so no doubt we're going to have to keep working hard defending mauls and scoring mauls of our own. We know they've got some good ball carriers so it will be about how we tidy up in that sort of defence and not let them get momentum. They've got some attack prowess out wide as well which we're going to have to manage but we think we can put ourselves in the right position and cause a few problems.
At the end of the day though a win in the English capital may not be on the cards, head coach Bemand is happy with the mark he has made in his tenure so far and is looking forward to see what else these girls can do for the rest of the competition.
All we want to keep going after is improvement in performance. We said we want to try and close the gap and become a world cup contender but we know that's not going to be an overnight thing. There's a story to this so we just gotta keep taking the next steps. Getting a win is part of the next step so we'll look hard at performance and keep going after more of the things that we did well and less of the things that put pressure on us.
A five try win in Virgin Media Park last weekend saw Ireland leapfrog to 3rd in the table. With World Cup places on the line, this will be a position Bemand will want to retain with two games remaining. England will be a tough contest next week but come April 27th all roads will lead to the Kingspan where they will take on Scotland in the final game of the Guinness Womens Six Nations. Tickets for the Belfast based game can be found here.
