Ireland 36 Australia 10
It’s just one win in a one-off Test to mark the IRFU’s 150th anniversary and tougher tests await for sure — starting in a fortnight when playing the world champions New Zealand in Vancouver — but even so, as statement wins go, this was loud and proud.
Scott Bemand will announce a squad of 30 players for Ireland’s venture into WXV 1 at the end of the month, when they will play matches against New Zealand, Canada and the USA, ranked second, third and seventh in the world.
He does so from a position of relative strength that would have been hard to imagine when he was appointed as part of the brave new dawn before the start of last season.
“It’s a really tough discussion and a year ago perhaps those discussions weren’t quite so tough but it’s where we want to be. It’s where we need to be to keep growing, to keep getting better, so we’ve got some tough calls to make,” said Bemand, with the squad travelling to Canada at the end of this week.
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“Is 30 enough? I don’t know what the numbers will be in a World Cup, but it could be a 32. So, there’s going to be a couple that miss out but the advantage for us is that it means we’ve got to compete really hard to get on it and people are going to have keep taking their game forward.”
All of which underlines the rapid progress made under a new coaching ticket and centralised contracts, with the emphasis now more firmly on the 15s side after the Olympics.
The newfound strength in depth and confidence which has been engendered in Bemand’s time was underlined by this benchmark win, the best by an Irish side in many years, especially considering Beibhinn Parsons, Aoibheann Reilly and Sam Monaghan were all missing.
Eight of the starting XV in the gritty win over Scotland in April at the same venue which secured third place in the Six Nations, and qualification for WXV 1 and next year’s World Cup, lined up at kick-off. And once more, Aoife Wafer led the charge with her marauding carries in the outside channels in a two-try, player-of-the-match performance which showcased the more potent carrying of the Irish forwards.
But four more debutants were successfully introduced: Ruth Campbell, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Erin King, and Siobhán McCarthy. Campbell put in a big shift to make light of Monaghan’s absence, Elmes King looked the part, King had a barnstorming impact and McCarthy was part of an improving Irish scrum.
There were also several returns to the 15s fold for the first time since 2022, and no one was more surprised that her Test career was reborn than Eimear Considine, only the second mother to play international rugby for Ireland, who was mobbed by her team-mates for the sharply taken turnover try before half-time.
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Stacey Flood were among the five players swiftly brought into this match-day squad, and it all clicked more slickly than, in truth, anyone could have imagined, even Bemand, as Ireland outscored the Wallabies by six tries to one.
The pick was the Flood-inspired counter which led to Murphy Crowe working a switch with Wafer for the all-action flanker to score her second try, but as satisfying would have been the maul try to seal this emphatic win.
Bemand’s palpable prematch excitement and decision to employ the increased “firepower” on the bench with a bomb squad-like introduction of six players in the 52nd minute was thoroughly vindicated.
Nobody bought into the hard-up, outside-in defensive system than Murphy Crowe, and they largely contained the slick passing and ambitious Wallaroos.
Yet the defence was outflanked twice, there were still lineout glitches and as well as having two chalked off there were still too many knock-ons in the opposition 22.
“I was really pleased with the set-piece, really pleased with some of the attack but to get your attack and join the two up your breakdown has got to be pretty sharp,” said Bemand, who also noted the missed attacking opportunities.
“We can’t be flippant with the ball. We’ve got to respect it. Some of the soft skills today, even with relatively low pressure, were kind of not maximising opportunities that we were creating, so there’s a little bit of that. Even with the two tries that were disallowed, we’ve left another couple or three out there.
“So look, we are where we are. How do I think that will match up? By the time we get over to WXV1 we’re going to have to be better with the ball in taking those opportunities.
“The opposition are going to come thick and fast, the pressure is going to go up as we step into the competition, so we’ve just got to be better in those areas.”
It’s remarkable to think that this was Ireland’s first Test against southern hemisphere opposition since the World Cup play-off defeat against Australia here in 2017, and the captain, Edel McMahon, put the value of the WXV concept into perspective.
“It’s huge. It’s not even valuable for us, it’s valuable for the World Cup. It creates an opportunity for international fixtures that teams don’t get outside of a Six Nations. It forces nations to invest, send their teams away. It grows the game and grows the competition. It means you’re not getting games in knock-out or pool stages with bonkers scores.
“WX1, 2,3 is driving teams to be better, to invest in their women’s teams, and to create matches so that they’re playing regularly. For us, it’s an opportunity to play teams that we’re not regularly coming up against and we need to be able to do what we did against Australia.
To not have played them, review them, go out and execute and move on to the next game.
McMahon, who had a very big 52 minutes, also accepted that this had to be a benchmark rather than a one-off.
Scoring sequence: 5 mins Dalton try, O’Brien con 7-0; 9 mins Stewart try 7-5; 13 mins Wafer try 12-5; 40 mins Considine try 17-5; (half-time 17-5); 60 mins Higgins try, Breen con 24-5; 69 mins Wafer try, Breen con 31-5; 73 mins Stewart try 31-10; Molony try 36-10.
Ireland: Eimear Considine (UL Bohemian/Munster); Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Enya Breen (Blackrock College/Munster), Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union/Munster); Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Molly Scuffil-McCabe (Leinster); Niamh O’Dowd (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere/Leinster); Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs/Munster), Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere/Leinster); Aoife Wafer (Blackrock College/Leinster), Edel McMahon (Exeter Chiefs/Connacht, capt), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere/Ulster). Replacements: Christy Haney (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster) for O’Dowd (48 mins), Clíodhna Moloney (Exeter Chiefs) for Jones, Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster) for Wall, Erin King (Old Belvedere) for McMahon, Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC) for Scuffil-McCabe, Eve Higgins (Railway Union) for O’Brien, Stacey Flood (Railway Union) for Elmes Kinlan (all 52 mins), Siobhán McCarthy (Worcester Warriors/Munster) for Haney (68 mins).
Australia: Lori Cramer (University of Queensland); Maya Stewart (Nelson Bay Gropers), Georgina Friedrichs (Wests Bulldogs), Cecilia Smith (Leeton Dianas), Desiree Miller (Eastern Suburbs); Faitala Moleka (Blacktown Scorpions), Natalie Wright (Wests Bulldogs); Bridie O’Gorman (Sydney University), Ashley Marsters (Booroondarra), Eva Karpani (Onkaparinga), Kaitlan Leaney (CSU Marlins), Michaela Leonard (Tuggeranong Vikings), Siokapesi Palu (capt, Rockdale Rangers), Leilani Nathan (Hamilton Hawks), Tabua Tuinakauvadra (Tuggeranong Vikings).
Replacements: Alapeta Ngauamo (Wests Bulldogs) for O’Gorman, Layne Morgan (Merewether Carlton) for Wright, Arabella McKenzie (Lightning Ridge Tigers) for Smith (all 52 mins), Tiarna Molloy (Inverell Highlanders) for Marsters, Lucy Dinnen (Wanneroo) for Nathan (both 57 mins), Lydia Kavoa (Eastern Suburbs) for Karpani, Tiarah Minns (Melbourne Uni/Manly Mermaids) for Leonard (both 70 mins), Biola Dawa (Wagga Reddies) for Stewart (73 mins).
Referee: Clara Munarini (Italy).
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