The Women’s 6 Nations 2019
This evening Ireland take England in the opening 6 Nations game in Energia Park Donnybrook at 5pm. Not the best time to expect a huge crowd at rush hour in Dublin. That will not matter to the 23 players who will take to the field for Adam Griggs this evening.
This is a huge task as the England squad is a fully professional paid side and the Irish side is still amateur , now this should not be used as a reason to say that if Ireland are beaten tonight , then the fact it was pros vs amateurs should not come into it. The Irish team has good experience within it with Claire Molloy, Ciara Griffin and Sene Naoupu. If Ireland mange like they did to France two years ago to hold their own at the set piece then maybe just maybe they may be able to cause a shock and beat this English side.
England are in a position where they recalled Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarrett who had been on 7s duty in the last two years. In that time the RFU has again handed out full time deals and will allow there women’s side to flourish in the run up to the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand. They will of course want to dethrone France from their place as defending champions.
Ireland have recognised that fact they may already being playing for 3rd in this campaign and that is a very honest assessment at this point in a campaign but the two sides ahead of everyone else are clearly France and England and that is down to professionalism pure and simple. Also the fact that the other side’s like Wales and Scotland have made strides forward and they will fancy taking Ireland on in the quest for wins in this Championship.
From an Irish perspective it’s about securing wins at home to the big two in 2019 , a number of players have been capped in the past 12 months wand Adam Griggs has worked tirelessly to try and build up a reserve of players her can call on when others are on 7s duty or out injured.
They beat Wales in a warm up fixture a few weeks ago and that will boost the confidence with a new campaign about to start. England under Simon Middleton will be here full sure of the win and bonus point but if Adam Griggs can get his team firing for the 80 minutes ,one doesn’t know what may happen.
So the 6 Nations will start at 5pm this evening then the 20s go into battle at 7.15pm down in Cork in Irish Independent Park , the Irish Legends play there English counterparts this evening in the RDS in aid of Charity.
As Always, enjoy the next 7 weeks, because whether you enjoy rugby or not, I can promise thrills and spills. I hope you all enjoy this year’s fair as much as this author will…… Enjoy….