Joanne O’Riordan: I’m fond of a good protest, a little disruption can be healthy

Before the Women’s Six Nations match between Ireland and England at Musgrave Park, Brian O’Driscoll, Marie Crowe, Fiona Coghlan and Ali Miller hosted a sponsor’s event. It was lovely; O’Driscoll spoke about the importance of investing in the women’s game, Miller recalled her incredible hat-trick against England in the 2014 Six Nations and Coghlan implored everyone to stick with this team, not to support for just one game but to keep coming out no matter what.

Just a couple of hundred metres away a group of protesters were being threatened with being ejected from the game because they held posters with the words “I give a f**k”. This was in response to the article in the Telegraph which alleged that a prominent figure in Irish rugby has asked if anyone gave a f**k about the women’s team at a dinner.

The response to Saturday’s protest on social media was huge. As ever, opinion was polarised with some tweeting criticism of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), while others took issue with the nature of the protest. The upshot was that regardless of the intention of the protest, we ended up with yet another headline that takes away from the Irish team.

I’m fond of a good protest; a little disruption can be healthy, and if you can’t protest a sporting body at a sporting event, what’s the actual point? The rugby game went ahead, the protesters were watched and nobody got hurt. And given absolutely nobody gave the home side a chance of getting within an asses’ roar of England, the 48-0 result wasn’t anywhere as bad as some had predicted for Ireland.

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Sure, England weren’t their usual clinical selves, but who cares? If the World Cup runners-up have an off day, whatever, you can only play what’s in front of you. The scrum, an incredibly sore spot at the moment, handled England’s strength reasonably well, embracing the pressure and forcing England to concede penalties.

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The lineouts, however, remain a massive chink in the armour and must be worked on. Remarkably, the defence also held up reasonably well when called into action. With the exception of one or two undeniable moments where there was an occasional lapse out wide, the defence was firm given how young and inexperienced this team is.

Conceding eight tries might not look good on paper, but an England side chasing a Grand Slam and that has laid waste to all before them so far in this championship were held scoreless for 32 minutes. Without wishing to find a silver lining, Ireland were the first country in this Six Nations that held them to less than 50 points on the scoreboard.

Sometimes Ireland were guilty of lacking creativity in attack, especially when they got close to the try line. It was also somewhat puzzling that they chose to opt for the corner instead of taking a tap penalty given their problems out of touch.

We can bemoan the absence of Ciara Griffin, Cliodhna Moloney and others, in terms of experience but and talent, but this is the team that the Irish management are intent on building around for the future.

There is plenty still to ponder for the IRFU and the decision to base the squad in Dublin, on contracts ranging in value from €15,000 to €30,000 per season, must be revisited if we are to make serious progress. Surely the option of flexible contracts, as are standard in other codes, could be brought into the equation

Afterwards, the visiting head coach Simon Middleton paid tribute to a tenacious Irish effort and brushed off those prematch forecasts of a record score for his English side.

“We knew we weren’t going to win like that. I’m really pleased, we scored 40-plus points and that’s a good score,” Middleton said.

“We’d have taken that, we’d have wanted a better, more consistent performance to get it.

“That [record] was never going to happen. These girls are too proud, too committed, too well organised and too well coached for that to have happened.

“They’re incredibly proud, very tenacious, stayed in the fight all the way and were really energised by the crowd and they forced us into playing a game we didn’t want to play.”

Middleton also spoke of his belief that Ireland can now start to bridge the gap to the likes of England and France, as long as the right supports are in place.

“Absolutely, it’s all relevant to funding, growing the pool of players, and you can only do that over a period of time, these are only at the start of their journey. If you get enough backing, it will come,” Middleton explained.

“You can see the gains Wales have made with 18 months or two years on contracts, and you’ll see it with these guys as well.

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“We need to be patient, but at the same time impatient, because we want to push the game along quickly. There’s a lot of great energy in the game, and goodwill in the game to take it forward. We’ll get there.”

With a wearying sense of deja vu, this is year one all over again in the rebuilding process for Irish women’s rugby. Let’s ensure we progress to year two without having to restart all over again.