Ireland confident Aoife Wafer will play ‘some part' in Women's Rugby World Cup after knee injury
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Irish Independent
4 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Sinéad Kissane: Scott Bemand hopes to find right mix with blend of new faces and the more familiar
The video published by the IRFU yesterday to reveal the 32 players selected for the Ireland squad for this month's Women's Rugby World Cup hit the sweet spot.
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Linda Djougang: 'We're not going into this World Cup as underdogs'
The mindset that underpinned Irish sport and Irish sportspeople has changed. The underdog tag that this nation wore as a comfort zone on the biggest of stages has been cast to the side and the women's rugby team will be no different in the coming weeks. It's less than four years since the national team failed to make the last World Cup, defeat to Spain and Scotland in a qualifying tournament in Parma consigning them to the role of onlookers from afar when the tournament kicked off in New Zealand a year later. Go back just two years and Ireland finished bottom of the Six Nations, stuck with the wooden spoon, after losing all five matches. The curve has turned upwards since, though, and Linda Djougang isn't interested in playing down what it is can be achieved. 'We were the underdog going into Tier 1 in Vancouver in the WXV1 when we qualified for the Rugby World Cup after beating Scotland last year and we went to Vancouver,' said the veteran prop on Tuesday. 'A lot of people believed that. 'People saw that we were kind of worried going and playing against the likes of New Zealand, Canada and USA, top-tier teams, but we came second. No-one thought that [would happen]. People saw us then as underdogs but the fact [is] that we beat the world champions. 'In top-tier one we came from 10th in the world to fifth so we have lost that underdog title. We don't want to be underdogs. We want every team to know that. Respect us because we've shown what we are capable of. We definitely won't be going into this World Cup as underdogs.' Performances in recent years mean that Ireland will certainly be respected but the warm-up loss to a number-two ranked Canada in Belfast last Saturday was a reminder of the journey still to go before this squad reaches its full potential. Head coach Scott Bemand admitted last month that the team is further along in its development now than he had expected, a reference no doubt to the fact that the make-up of the collective is still relatively inexperienced. The days of teamsheets sprinkled with players yet to earn a double-digit figure of caps are gone but Ireland are still raw. Djougang, with 48 appearances, is far and away the most experienced player travelling to England later this month. This is something that people regularly say to her but she will respond by pointing out that the likes of Dannah O'Brien, Aoife Dalton and Niamh O'Dowd are players with the sort of mentality that can belie such statistics. 'Last year in Vancouver really opened our eyes, where we played the likes of New Zealand and were able to beat them. We had less caps then. Now we definitely have grown and gained even more experience. 'It just shows the players sometimes have to forget about the caps. It's more about our mindset and ability to focus on what's in front of us.' A theatre nurse who has taken a career break to focus on this World Cup shot, Djougang is one of 10 in the current squad who featured that day in Parma in 2021 when they fell short of Scotland and a place at the global gig. The change in the squad since has been seismic. Torrents of players have been ushered in as a steady stream of big-name and big-game players exited the building. Among those to move on since are Eimear Considine, Sene Naoupu, Lindsay Peat, Nichola Fryday, Ciara Griffin and Claire Molloy. All bar Fryday did at least retire having played at a previous World Cup and theirs is a legacy that Djougang is eager to build on now that the women's team has turned a corner and looks to ensure that the disaster that was 2021 never happens again. 'So we definitely want to go to the World Cup and perform to our best ability and leave the jersey in a better place,' she explained, 'so that the future generations don't have to go through the same thing.' As for those ten 'survivors', that torment does at least bring with an appreciation of the distance they have all travelled in the years since and Djougang can't help but think back even further when summing up what this all means. She was 21 and still a few years away from her Ireland debut when she watched Ireland and Wales fight for seventh place before England took on New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup final in Belfast and thought that this was the stage she wanted to grace. And now she's made it. 'It just makes it a little bit more extra special.'
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
From medical theatre to the rugby arena, Linda Djougang's focus is on successful outcomes
This summer is a rugby summer for Linda Djougang. Contracted to play in the upcoming Rugby World Cup , it seems like a stark contrast that when not lining out for Ireland in the frontrow, she works as a theatre nurse in Tallaght University Hospital . Then again, specific, comprehensive care in a specialised unit could easily describe the work of a prop scrumming down to leverage angles and pressure points. For the 29-year-old, who grew up in Cameroon before moving to Rush in north Dublin as an eight-year-old, there are very real similarities between the theatre and the arena. Timing, process, encouragement, resourcefulness and maybe even triage. Administering anaesthesia is, thankfully, no longer part of the modern game. READ MORE 'Oh massively,' she says. 'I think it is so important. I always feel what I do in nursing is the same as in rugby. For me now, I have experience on the field but what I gain from nursing I can put into rugby. 'Like the team working, being sharp, the quick decisions on and off the field, being precise, quick thinking. I problem-solve and usually that's what happens on the field. 'When it comes to a penalty, what do we do next? When you play, who's going to stand up and make the decisions?' Djougang is a former track-and-field athlete. By the time she was in Trinity College, she had still barely heard of rugby. Then she signed up for tag rugby to meet people. Bang, that was it. Neve Jones and Linda Djougang celebrate Deirbhile Nic a Bháird's try during Ireland's World Cup warm-up victory against Scotland at Virgin Media Park in Cork. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho First she was a flanker, then a loosehead and now a tighthead. She travels to Franklin's Gardens, Northampton, for Ireland's first Pool C match against Japan as the most experienced player on the Irish squad with 48 caps. If Djougang lines out against Japan and then Spain, she will be the only player on the team to potentially face New Zealand in Brighton for the final pool game with 50 caps. 'I think now it is really the mentality and mindset that goes in, it's so important,' she says. 'It's really the mentality and sometimes caps don't represent . . . yeah, you have the experience, but experience is really what you face in front of you. I think last year in Vancouver it really opened our eyes, where we played the likes of New Zealand and were able to beat them. 'We had less caps then. Now we have grown and gained even more experience, and I think it just shows the players sometimes have to forget about the caps. It's more about our mindset and ability to focus on what's in front of us.' Vancouver last year was the WXV1 tournament. Launched in 2023, it consists of three tiers of nations. Djougang and her team-mates were in Tier 1 as one of the three top sides in last year's Six Nations championship. Ireland secured a sensational, last-gasp 29-27 win over world champions New Zealand in their opening match. Replacement Erin King, who is injured and not travelling to the World Cup, scored her second try of the game to level the scores in the final minute, with outhalf Dannah O'Brien kicking the decisive conversion off the upright. The scalp of the Black Ferns was transformative for the Irish team in their thinking and expectations. With the win, the dial turned sharply. 'We were the underdog going into Tier 1 in Vancouver in the WXV1,' says Djougang. Linda Djougang celebrates after Ireland's dramatic victory against New Zealand in Vancouver, Canada, last year. Photograph: Travis Prior/Inpho 'People saw that we were kind of worried going and playing against the likes of New Zealand, Canada and USA – top-tier teams. 'But we came second in Vancouver. No one thought that. I think people saw us then as underdogs, but the fact that we beat the world champions . . . we came from 10th in the world to fifth now, so I think we have lost that underdog title. 'We don't want to be underdogs. I think that we want every team to know that. Respect us because we've shown what we are capable of. We won't be going into this World Cup as underdogs.' The intensity of the group springs from a World Cup four years ago that Ireland didn't attend, a defeat to Scotland in the qualifiers sending the team spiralling into relative obscurity, or, certainly to the fringes of the first order of teams. Ten of the current squad were involved in the game. [ Rugby Ivana Kiripati: 'I am a Samoan girl, born in New Zealand, doing life in Ireland – how cool is that?' Opens in new window ] The feeling then of a World Cup taking place in New Zealand without Ireland was that something hugely important had passed them by. It makes the next few weeks even more freighted and crucially places Ireland back in the centre of the rugby world – a position where the players believe they have a right to be. 'It makes it feel extra-special, especially with the 10 of us that have been through that journey, and we know how we felt in Parma,' says Djougang speaking at the Specsavers Media Day. 'I feel that we appreciate it even more, because we know what the journey was and we know what we've been through. Sometimes, for you to really appreciate something, you have to have that. I think it's something that really connects us even more, the fact that we have now an opportunity to do something that we always wanted.' Four long years of wait and finally a summer of rugby in the World Cup arena.
