Last Saturday's opening Six Nations game against Wales may not have gone the way she hoped, but assistant coach Niamh Briggs is maintaining a positive outlook for the future of the Ireland women's rugby team.
Despite being in front for large chunks of the contest, Ireland ultimately suffered a 27-19 reversal to the Welsh at the RDS. This was their first competitive fixture under new head coach Greg McWilliams, who drafted in former captain Briggs as part of his backroom team earlier this year.
McWilliams was an Irish assistant coach himself from 2009 to 2014, a period that saw Ireland winning a Grand Slam and reaching the semi-final of the World Cup. Briggs subsequently skippered Ireland to a Six Nations title in 2015, but recognises that patience is required as they aim to get themselves back to this level of competitiveness.
“I think when you look at the group, and I’m not just talking about the seven, eight, nine backs that were involved last weekend. You look at the wider backline group that we have in our 38-woman squad. I generally have a real big buzz about where we can go and what we can do as a group,” Briggs remarked.
“When you know that you’re working with players with a huge amount of talent and you’re trying to just educate them and develop them in the right way, it’s easy to remain patient because you know they are not far off it. From that point of view, it hasn’t been too bad at all because I can see the direction we are going in and it really excites me.”
In addition to some harrowing defeats, Briggs also enjoyed some great days as a player against France – their second round opponents at Stade Ernest Wallon in Toulouse on Saturday (kick-off 2.15pm Irish time).
However, an away win has eluded Ireland in this fixture from 13 previous visits and Briggs anticipates their latest trip will be every bit as tough.
“France are very good. For me, they’re definitely up there with England. They were incredibly good in the autumn against New Zealand. Just a very big, powerful team that can play. I’ve never been in a position to beat them over there and I think that’s going to be a huge task for us, but I think we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves.
“Understand where we are as a group, where we’re going and then continue to grow and develop from our side as opposed to looking at them,” Briggs added.
If Ireland aim to pull off a shock triumph in Toulouse, then an in-form Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe will be vital to their cause. Having played most of her international rugby in the Sevens code, she was called into the 15s squad last year and has already bagged four tries in just seven appearances at this grade.
Facing France has proven to be a daunting proposition for the very best Irish teams down through the years, but even if the result doesn’t go their way, Murphy Crowe is banking on a relatively inexperienced Irish group delivering a performance that shows they are moving in the right direction.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge, but every single player in our squad is going to relish it. You don’t get to play France too often. We’ll give an absolute Irish fight. We’ll do our very best out there and give 110 per cent. If we take the learnings and improve on the learnings, that’ll be a massive win for us,” Murphy Crowe said.
