Matching England 'possible' for improving Ireland

BBC News

12-04-2025

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand believes his side can match England in the future despite Saturday's 49-5 defeat in the Six Nations.After being on the receiving end of a record defeat 12 months ago, Ireland competed and frustrated England in the first half, trailing 7-5 in Cork at half-time after a late try for the Red Roses.However, England, who have won six Six Nations titles in a row, were rampant in the second half and scored seven tries after the restart."We know we're not perfect yet. We know we're writing the story that we're trying to grow and trying to close gaps on England and France," Bemand told BBC Sport."There's bits to go to close on those top two but we'll keep going at it and we believe it is possible."
Ireland 'disciplined' in first half
Ireland had shocked rugby heavyweights New Zealand in the autumn in WXV1 and were hopeful of making progress against England, although few believed they could win. However, Amee-Leigh Costigan's try gave Ireland a platform to build on and some ferocious defence kept England at bay. The tournament favourites finally got on the board after Aoife Dalton had strayed in front of the impressive Dannah O'Brien's kick and England capitalised from the penalty to hold a slender lead at half-time.England's one area of success in the first half was their scrum, and that continued dominance at the set piece saw prop Niamh O'Dowd set to the sin bin soon after the restart.From there, England went through the gears and put the game out of sight and Ireland wilted as their hopes of a shock victory drifted away."It wasn't perfect today but hopefully people will see the level of commitment that goes into it and commitment to what the girls are trying to achieve," added Bemand."We had to absorb a little bit of pressure in the first half and there was a little bit of set piece pressure. "It's a game we could have been winning at half-time. There were two kick errors, and we were suddenly trapped in our own 22 and they get a score. "Until that point, we had defended well, we were sensible, smart and we attacked the ball at the right times. "We had put pressure on the opposition, and we were pretty disciplined with what we were trying to do."
Bemand added "there was a cost to that" defence as Ireland tired as the game progressed."We started to pick up a couple of errors and we picked up the yellow card, and we never really recovered from that."England are a good team. They have some athletes and they are a well put together unit. We knew that to stay in it as long as we did, that's a step forward from what it was last year."Ireland will look to bounce back against Wales at Rodney Parade in their fourth fixture as Bemand's side look to lock in a third-place finish for a second consecutive Six Nations."We'll feel pride but it's not where we want to be. We understand there are a few layers we have to get through to get to that [level of England and France]. "We still don't want to turn up and be valiant losers. We've got two more games in this Six Nations that we can come out of having done something special. "We hadn't won away since 2021, but we stuck 50 points on the Italians and it's a massive opportunity to show we can learn fast."