A delighted Scott Bemand readily agreed that the Ireland women’s team took a significant step forward even from the Six Nations, which featured a 36-5 win over Wales, when outscoring Australia by 36-10 and six tries to two in Belfast.
The Wallaroos may not have played quite like the fifth best side in the world but whatever about that, Ireland produced their best win in many years, dating back at least to the victory over the USA three years ago and perhaps further back than that as well.
“It’s great to bring another winning performance back to Ireland,” said head coach Bemand. “We said we wanted to take people along with us. To come up here, play the fifth in the world, they are a good team, Australia are a tier one nation.
“Being able to bring them to Ireland and put a performance there that gives the crowd something to get behind and gives the Irish public something they can see that we are moving forward and something to cheer. It felt like an exciting game and I’m delighted for the girls that some of the things we are starting to work on and want to implement we are starting to see a bit of fruit.”
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This was only a second win in five meetings against Australia in what was their first clash against a southern hemisphere side since the 2017 World Cup play-off defeat against the Wallaroos at this same ground.
“We’ve got a new crew, a new crop of players coming through, some of the Sevens players coming back so probably the biggest thing today is growing an understanding of what we are trying to do. We’ve had two weeks together...I think we’ve moved our performance levels on from what it was in the Six Nations.
“It’s starting to look like we can fire some shots.”
However, Bemand did add one rider.
“The difference being in competition, the Six Nations we probably had the weight of trying to achieve something. With this we know we are going into WXV1 next week. What happened today was important in taking us forward but without the weight of the result that the Six Nations brings.
“In terms of what the game looked like and how it flowed and where we got pressure, possibly. It’s brilliant being able to bring a bench on with that much firepower. They move a game up a level and it’s brilliant to see us score tries through pushing, getting a couple of tries today, that’s a great way to finish.
“We are showing we can score in a couple of different ways. Now we’ve got to keep that momentum going against more Tier one nations.”
In making seven changes and restoring five of Ireland’s Olympics Sevens players, as well as Eimear Considine at full-back, in a match day squad containing four debutants to Vicky Elmes Kinlan, lock Ruth Campbell and replacements Siobhan McCarthy and Erin King, Bemand’s selection was entirely vindicated.
“The debutants were great. Ruth coming on, she’s full of bang, gusto, she’s in everything, her lineout capabilities are excellent. Vicky comes on and gets some really good moments on the ball. It was a pretty strong start from her.”
The pre-ordained strategy of introducing six of them together in the 52nd minute and reconfiguring the backline worked a treat. Thereafter, Ireland dominated, outscoring the wilting Wallaroos by 19-5 and also three tries to one, while having another two ruled out.
“We have, probably what we’ve not always had is firepower so you look at what we brought off the bench today. We’ve made a raft of changes in one go, like the South Africa lads maybe and they elevated the game.
“It’s really important we understand that we’ve got to start games well, when your finisher come on they are doing a job, they are coming on to finish the game and elevate it away from the opposition.
Australia head coach Jo Yapp admitted her team were readily beaten by the better side.
“Credit to Ireland, they played well. But from our perspective our discipline let us down around that breakdown. We gave away a lot of penalties, which gave them field position, which we struggled to get out of.
“You can see from the way Ireland have progressed over the last 18 months, they’ve been working together under Scott. We knew they were capable of a strong performance. They are in WXV1 for a reason.”
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