2024 was a signpost year for many Irish athletes, most notably our Olympians. However, somewhat under the radar came the Ireland Women’s rugby team. Led by new head coach Scott Bemand and a squad of top quality stars, Ireland had a 2024 to remember, culminating in victory over New Zealand in the Autumn.
Now, as they head into 2025 with form and expectations for the Six Nations and World Cup, Scott Bemand was quick to label the year as an important one for women’s rugby. As ticket sales soar for the World Cup in England, there's excitement in the air.
Speaking at the Guinness Women’s Six Nations launch in London at the start of the month, the Irish head coach is keen to grow on the success of 2024, with a style of play that can get the rugby supporters in Ireland on board.
“We knew where we were two years ago. We set about making some changes to belief, to physical conditioning, technical, tactical all the stuff that makes the ingredients but culturally we’ve had a bit of a shift."
The style and culture shift was echoed by Neve Jones. The star hooker was one of the standouts last season as Ireland finished third in the competition. She said “[the] culture is really good off the field, we get on really well and then when we take to the field we really want to make a statement and I know there’s plenty more room for growth to come.”
“It’s a really exciting time. When he [Scott Bemand] first came in, I think all players felt a shift particularly culturally. We put a lot of work into that and you can see it on the field,” Jones added.
Ireland will be hoping to show this rapid rise when they face England and France, the clear top two in the competition. Ireland last beat England back in 2015 and France in 2017, so a result in one of those home games in Cork and Belfast respectively would be massive.
Scott Bemand’s squad will surely try to learn from the recent win over the Black Ferns for this, as Bemand was keen to point out that this squad enjoys rising to the challenge.
“Obviously the New Zealand fixture, it was still a very close game, it was a tough game so we’re not running away from ourselves at all. We appreciate there’ll be bigger, harder, tougher challenges to come but what it did do it just showed what is possible”, Bemand said.
“We managed to get ourselves into a really sweet spot with a young group. So the speed of ascent is somewhat surprising but the effort, the work, the stuff that goes on behind the pitch, it’s been well deserved,” he added.
Now as attention focuses to the first of two major tournaments in 2025, Bemand, Jones and all the team are fully focused on making it yet another memorable year for girls in green.
“It’s a big year for women’s rugby and hopefully we can continue to believe and continue to put those performances on the pitch.”
Ireland play France in their curtain-raiser in the 2025 Women's Six Nations on Saturday at 1pm in Belfast.
