Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan has called on her charges to be more physical in next week’s quarter-final after being outmuscled by a dominant New Zealand outfit.
Sunday’s Pool C decider was defined by Black Fern defenders knocking back Irish carriers, coupled with Ireland’s inability to do the same. Early in the first half, and then on occasion in the second, Ireland earned opportunities inside the 22 only for the Kiwi line to prove unbreachable. Ireland failed to trouble the scorers on a difficult afternoon in Brighton.
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By contrast, New Zealand crossed for six tries as their attack ran rampant after half-time, teenage wing Braxton Sorensen-McGee crossing for a hat-trick through a hapless Irish defence.
“It was our carrying game, we need to be more physical,” said Monaghan when asked to pinpoint issues with the Irish performance. “We need to hit them up front, hit the front door, test them through the middle like they were doing to us. Then be able to play off that.
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“We were a bit passive with our carry at the start, once we got on top of them then we could play. You could see things opening up and we were free to play. At times, we just lost that gain line and that’s what we needed to do.”
The second half was when Ireland came closest to breaking their duck. One maul was held up over the line. Another attack was ended by a Jorja Miller pilfer right on her own line, while a cruel bouncing ball evaded Amee-Leigh Costigan while chasing a kick in behind from Dannah O’Brien.
“We were on top of them, it was frustrating,” acknowledged Monaghan. “Our depth, once we come running on to the ball ... the likes of Brittany Hogan, Clíodhna Moloney [-MacDonald], them players they are going over. [It’s a case of] having a bit more time, our timing off our nines as well, working on to the ball, carrying over.”
Head coach Scott Bemand pointed to Ireland’s form over the past fortnight in an attempt to play down concerns for the Irish attack. “If you look over the last two weeks we’ve actually been pretty clinical in terms of getting into the score zone and coming away with points,” he said.
“Clearly, [it was] a different challenge against New Zealand in the type of athlete and the type of player they’ve got, the physicality they bring.
“The fact we’re getting in there and creating momentum and getting opportunities to get ‘ins’ will be something we’ll look at go ‘okay, we understand we need to do more of that again against another World Cup contender next week. We just need to be a little bit smarter in how we get over the whitewash when those opportunities come.
On a bruising afternoon, Ireland suffered a number of physical casualties as players limped off for one reason or another. Stacey Flood was stretchered off with a foot injury, co-captain Edel McMahon also limped off, Béibhinn Parsons was replaced early in the second half while Eve Higgins was replaced for a late HIA.
“Stacey has got a cut on her foot so we’ll certainly need to have a look at that and try to get that fixed up as best as we can and as quick as we can,” said Bemand.
“Both Eve and Edel have come off but I’m pretty hopeful they’ll come through pretty quickly. Eve had a HIA but she’s passed it.
He added: “[With Edel], that point of the game we sort of looking and making decisions about what’s coming over the hill next week. So Edel got a small bump to her knee, we made a decision, we had Claire Boles to come on and Boles is a very able player to bring on.
“Béibhinn is absolutely fine. We know we’ve got Anna McGann who has been scoring tries when she comes on. She did nothing wrong today, it was about getting people on the park who we know can be in this arena and can take the learnings about how to perform.”
