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Ireland to focus on recognising chances and taking them

RUGBY: Ireland v USA: MANAGER PHILIP Doyle has named the same starting XV for Ireland’s second game of the Women’s Rugby World…

Tue Aug 24 2010 - 01:00

RUGBY: Ireland v USA:MANAGER PHILIP Doyle has named the same starting XV for Ireland's second game of the Women's Rugby World Cup against the USA today.

Doyle has made two changes to the replacements with Chris Fanning and Caroline Mahon coming onto the bench for Yvonne Nolan and Carol Staunton.

Number eight and former captain Joy Neville will earn her 50th cap for Ireland.

Ireland lost their opening game of the tournament against favourites England on Friday.

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Doyle said: “I thought we deserved a little bit more. We matched England at times but they are a great outfit and had a bit more pace and power. We will take the positives out of it and move on.”

Doyle is now looking forward the USA game: “Our application was good against England but we will work on recognising our chances and taking them for this game.”

Ireland captain Fiona Coghlan was pleased with some aspects of the first game: “Our scrum and defence have improved but we gifted them two cheap scores. We knew it would be a hard game but we have to move on.”

USA kicked off their campaign with a 51-0 defeat of Kazakhstan, but outhalf Christy Ringgenberg insists there is still plenty they need to work on. Ringgenberg scored two tries in a personal haul of 26 points against the Asian champions, but despite the seven-try performance and collection of what could be a vital try-scoring bonus point in the race for the semi-finals, the outhalf knows there is always room for improvement.

“We did some things we haven’t done in the past, we put some numbers on the board and that was a confidence builder for us,” explained Ringgenberg, the leading point scorer in the tournament after match-day one.

The 27-year-old knows that Ireland will be a different prospect to Kazakhstan.

“Ireland played a very physical game against England and I think they will come out against us again with that same strength and so we’ve really got to step it up a level to compete with them in the next game,” admitted Ringgenberg.

“I think we have to be a lot more physical.

“Our tackling was a little bit suspect in the Kazakhstan game so I think we need to be a little bit more physically courageous against Ireland.

“They are very good at the breakdown and they handle that area very, very well and I think we have got to be prepared to defensively handle them around the breakdown.

“I think if we are going to succeed against them we are going to have to tackle a little bit more through the centres, as well as opening up our wings a little bit more, giving them more space.”

IRELAND: N Briggs; A Davis, J OSullivan, L Cantwell, N Stapleton; H Brosnan, T Rosser; F Coghlan, G Bourke, L Austin, K OLoughlin, M Louise Reilly, O Brennan, C Molloy, J Neville. Replacements: C Fanning, L Guest, C Mahon, S Ryan, L Beamish, S Houston, M Kelly.