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BBC News
12-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Matching England 'possible' for improving Ireland
Ireland head coach Scott Bemand believes his side can match England in the future despite Saturday's 49-5 defeat in the Six 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 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 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 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."
BBC News
25-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Pressure firmly on Scotland' for visit of Wales, says Barclay
John Barclay is predicting a nervous atmosphere at Murrayfield a week on Saturday when Scotland take on Wales in the Six the tightest of losses to England, Scotland's best chance of a second win comes at home to resurgent Wales, as they finish with a trip to Paris to play in-form France."[Scotland v Wales] looks a bit different now, it's going to be tighter than we thought," Barclay told the Rugby Union Daily podcast. "From first two Wales games, there was no sign of anything to be concerned about."You watch the game at the weekend when they go toe to toe, physically and tactically, with one of the best teams in the world [Ireland]. Is it the bounce effect? I don't know, we'll see next weekend."Wales, with interim head coach Matt Sherratt taking charge for the first time, looked far stronger in the defeat to Ireland than in previous losses to France and Italy."If Scotland lose to Wales, you're looking at one from five because they've got to go away to France," Barclay added."They've won over in France, they've shown it can be done, but you don't want to be going into the last round of the Six Nations with one win."The pressure is firmly on Scotland. Everyone says Scotland deserved to win [against England], but they didn't win and they didn't win against Ireland. Quite plainly, they have to win. "It will be a nervous energy around the stadium. Wales are still underdogs, it's going to be fascinating."Gregor Townsend has come under pressure in some quarters, but Barclay defended the Scotland head coach."There is pressure, there's always pressure. Someone said to me the other day 'he's got to go' and I'm like 'well who are you replacing him with?' Franco [Smith] has done great things at Glasgow, what's the guarantee that he gets better?"You look at the game at the weekend, Gregor Townsend has done his job. He's put in place clearly how they were trying to play the game and they did it, except for final passes. I don't think that's a coaching thing."
