The dust has settled on a 24-5 loss away in Twickenham last Sunday. It is Any Farrell’s first defeat as Ireland head coach. It will be interesting in the aftermath of the game what the reaction of the squad will be along with the coaching staff.

The performance left a lot to be desired and will need to be improved upon with the Italy game on Saturday week. Of course there are question marks over the Italian game due to the Corona Virus outbreak in Italy.

A number of sports fixtures have been already postponed and the Irish Government are keeping a close eye on the situation with the Six Nations also keeping abreast of the situation. Ireland will come together for a two day camp with 28 players involved with a number of players released to play in this weekend’s Pro 14 although Ulster’s game in Italy has been postponed and will be re fixed.

Looking at the team that could be selected, it could have a number of changes just to freshen up the 23 up. Players like Ross Byrne, Caelan Doris, Dave Kilcoyne and Andrew Porter will feel they can add something to the Irish side heading into the final two games of the Championship.

Over the last few years, the game against Italy has been the game where players have been interchanged more so than against the other few teams in the Championship. It has been a real test for Farrell with the manner of the Irish performance. He will now need to act and make sure that the same level of performance doesn’t happen against Italy or France.

Particularly against France the performance last Sunday just won’t make the grade and will need to be seriously picked apart to try and come up with a more attack minded game plan and that means Mike Catt bringing in some cleaver attacking moves that haven’t been seen before, yes there have been a few new things seen in the first two games but more needs to be seen in the next few games and in the Summer tour of Australia.

I will now try and select a 23 I feel will beat Italy in Dublin on Saturday week :

15 Jordan Larmour

14 Andrew Conway

13 Garry Ringrose

12 Stuart Mc Closkey

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Ross Byrne

9 John Cooney

8 Caelan Doris

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 CJ Stander

5 James Ryan

4 Iain Henderson

3 Andrew Porter

2 Ronan Kelleher

1 Dave Kilcoyne

–

16 Dave Heffernan

17 Jack Mc Grath

18 Tadgh Furlong

19 Ultan Dillane

20 Will Connors

21 Luke Mc Grath

22 Billy Burns

23 Robbie Henshaw

It’s 2 wins from 2 games played by the Irish women after a solid 31-12 win over Wales this afternoon at a very stormy Donnybrook. This win was defiantly build on a solid defence that saw Ireland having to defend for large periods over the 80 minutes but this was also matched by some wonderful handling from the players throughout the 23.

As I said last week, there is most certainly a new style being bedded in and week on week it is getting better and better so heading for a tough fixture against England away from home in 2 weeks time this team will be brim full of confidence.

Adam Griggs and his coaches do seem to have new leaders emerging in this current group with players like Anna Caplice, Cliona Moloney and Edel Mc Mahon really leading from the front to help team captain Ciara Griffin in leading this young group which is still learning the ropes in terms of experience at this level.

All you can ask is to be 2 from 2 after two homes games to start the campaign and this squad has done just that and there cohesion as a group is getting better, there work in the tight 5 is getting better and also there ability to offload out of the tackle is getting better and this can only be a good thing going forward.

The weather conditions were terrible but both sides coped well in the extreme weather that last for about 20 minutes of the 2^nd half and both sets of players have to applauded for the way they tried to continue to offload while to weather steadily got worse in that 20 minute spell.

It is now a two week break for both teams with England next up for Ireland and Wales will face France at home. Ireland can reflect on two good wins on home soil and will at least travel to play England in good form.

Roll on England in 2 weeks…..

 

 

Ireland women will hope to make it two wins from two when they play Wales on Sunday at 1pm in Donnybrook. After a tough game against a very well coached Scotland side Ireland will want to keep up the winning momentum by beating a Welsh side that they have had a decent record against in recent seasons.

Ireland will hope to have skipper Ciara Griffin back in harness after she left the field at half time in last week’s game. Ireland played well in only fits and starts last weekend with only a breakaway try on 65 minutes managing to see off an energised Scotland team.

Scotland will feel with a bit of luck they would have managed to win the game after soaking up some early Irish pressure they managed to turn the set piece to their advantage with a very strong scrum and very good defence these two aspects kept Scotland in the game throughout where Scotland worked there socks off and only for that try by Beibhinn Parsons, Scotland would have been well set to find a score to win this game but a strong Ireland defence kept them at bay.

Ireland will look to kick on and hope to improve in attack where they will know when they have the ball they need to keep it and try and get there outside backs into space and then go after Wales also in the set piece where Ireland were poor at the scrum and they will need to start the game on Sunday from minute one in the right frame of mind.

Players like Anna Caplice, Ciara Griffin, Sene Naoupu will need to lead Ireland from the front and there quality at the current moment will be crucial because Ireland are trying to play a new style that is still under development and thankfully the few warm up games have allowed Ireland to at least bed in the new style and those games also allowed for mistakes to be ironed out before last week and this week aswell.

It is time for Ireland to up the ante with Wales on Sunday and then away to England in two weeks time. Time for this side to show an upward curve with some big tests on the horizon in this campaign and then the World Cup qualifiers in September of this year. It’s another chance for this group to play in front a of a packed house at Energia Park.

The kick off is 1pm Sunday, so if you’re at a loose end h=get to Donnybrook if you can to support the girls in green…

Ireland will start there 2020 women’s 6 Nations campaign against Scotland in Donnybrook tomorrow at 1pm.  They will hope to start the Championship in winning fashion after only one win in 2019 to their opponent’s tomorrow afternoon. Ireland then lost their other fixtures and will also have to qualify for the 2021 World Cup at the tail end of 2020. 2020 is a big year for Irish women’s rugby which has gone through many turbulent times since the home World Cup of 2017.

Many players have left the squad through retirement and the players just haven’t come through as quickly as one would have hoped. Having to split there resources between 7s and 15s has been tough but this cannot be used as an excuse into 2020 as this has been the norm for a few years now.

With 3 homes games against Scotland, Wales and Italy the hope of a 3^rd place finish is very much in Irish hands as one feels England and France will be fighting for top spot even though they face each other in round 1.

Momentum is a word used very often in sport but is a key message for this group and they know a win against Scotland will set them up for a another home game vs Wales on Sunday week. Adam Griggs has had a extra few training camps and training game vs Wales so they should be very prepared for the challenge that this weekend will bring.

Having Phillip Doyle in the Scottish corner will bring challenges he was the man that was in charge of Ireland for many years including a number of World Cups and he was the man who was in charge of Ireland when they won the Grand Slam of 2013 and Championship win in 2015.

Both he and Ireland have been on different paths since he left the Irish job. Ireland have lost the momentum of his time charge and have really failed to capitalise on the good work he and many more put in while he was charge.

The challenge for this current group is to try and win all three home fixtures and then they have two free hits against France and England although they won’t see either game as a “free hit“ against the heavyweights of England in round 3 and France in Round 5.

Time for all the talking to cease and for the girls in green to take charge and put all the lessons of 2019 to good use and make a winning start to the 2020 Championship on home soil against Scotland. 1pm in Donnybrook Sunday…