Ireland face the impossible ask of trying to get a result against England this afternoon, and also the more realistic but very, very difficult task of coming away with a respectable score line.
As a journalist, writing about the Irish women's team, and Irish womens's rugby in general, without being negative, is also very, very hard.
Like the Irish team today, you want to find something positive, however small, to cling onto and to build upon.
One obvious aspect of the current squad is the lack of experience and youth, highlighted by a brilliant and revealing graphic from @rugbykino, showing the vast difference between the experience in last week's Ireland and Italy sides.
Ireland's Lack Of Experience
Lil update to include a mean and median for each column pic.twitter.com/TRqctbErg9
— @[email protected] (@RugbyKino) April 14, 2023
READ HERE: Ireland's Wall Hits Back At 'Insulting' Stephen Jones Six Nations Notion
Ireland's losses to Wales, France, and Italy have been error strewn, and, from the viewers point, the team has suffered from a lack of cohesion at time.
But, Ireland prop Linda Djougang puts a lot of this down to the youth and inexperience of the team, many of them debuting in the unforgiving environment of the Six Nations.
We have a young squad and they're learning on the international stage. Those mistakes are going to come, and it's important that they come so they learn from it. In the next two or three years it will be different.
It's unfortunate for them that they are learning on the international stage. It's never easy and the pressure that comes with international rugby.
And I'm really super proud of them that they didn't go into their shell when they made mistakes ..... it's important for us to really put our arms around those young players coming through.
One of the leading and clearest voices in Irish women's rugby is Railway Union DOR John Cronin, whose Twitter threads and articles have broken down brilliantly the complete incompetence of the IRFU over the last decade, which has lead to the current state of the national team.
He also lays out logically and plainly how the current state can be improved over the coming seasons.
If sufficient changes can be made, these talented but raw youngsters - the likes of Dannah O'Brien, Sadhbh McGrath, Aoife Dalton - will be able to flourish and help usher in a new period of success for Ireland.
Monaghan Impressed With Ireland U18s
Gloucester and Ireland second row Sam Monaghan also touched on the performances from Ireland U18s at the recent Six Nations Festival, which saw promising showing and results from the side.
To see what they could do, especially against England and France who have a lot of centres of excellence around the country and probably better college systems and university systems it was great to see some raw talent there.
I was very impressed.... and from coaching at that age myself.
From the last World Cup cycle we have lost so many experienced players and we have this young group that will come up in the next couple of years together and they'll have that cohesion as we stick together as a group.
But it is good to finally see the U18s and see the talent there, they'll kick on into U20s. And that experience for them to even go out there and to sing the anthem, kind of like a rehearsal before the senior squad.
For them to have the experience of playing other countries and being in different countries. And the high performance environment, the set-up, to be introduced to that before coming into the senior squad I think is quite invaluable as well.
There is positivity in youth, but despite what score line or performance awaits Ireland today, this positivity will be useless if the IRFU do not act soon, and start listening to the players, giving them a voice, and essentially caring more about the game.
Today, as a proud official partner of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations, Guinness is calling on the nation to surge together and be a positive force for change behind the elevation and growth of women’s rugby in Ireland. As a committed rugby sponsor, Guinness will ‘Never Settle’ until rugby is a place where everyone can belong. Guinness’ ambition for this year’s Championship, along with the IRFU and Six Nations is to make Ireland’s fixture against England in Musgrave Park on 22nd April a sell-out, by calling on all rugby fans to get behind the women’s team. Tickets for the match can be purchased on Ticketmaster.ie
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