Can Six Nations mend Irish hearts?

Ireland were beaten 18-13 by France to exit the World Cup at the quarter-final stage in their last game

Six months on from their heartbreaking World Cup exit to France at the quarter-final stage, the Ireland team has re-assembled for the Women’s Six Nations with renewed vigour.

That 18-13 defeat in Exeter is still fresh in their memory, but Scott Bemand’s side are determined to use it as fuel to fire them to new heights in this year’s championship.

Under Bemand they have secured back-to-back third place finishes in the Six Nations, coming in 10 points behind France in second and 17 behind eventual winners England in 2025.

So, what would success look like in this year’s Six Nations?

The goals are clear: close the gap further to the top two and finally pick up an elusive victory over France after some near misses.

It will be a tough ask with their games against world champions England, who have won seven straight Six Nations titles and last lost a game in 2018, and France both coming away from home, but Bemand wants his side to prove they have reached another level.

“We’ve always said we don’t want to be afraid to talk about winning; winning games and competitions,” he said.

“The nice thing about how we’ve been tracking is that we had a good World Cup, but we didn’t get what we wanted out of that quarter-final. We pushed France close, but we have to be another school better.

“It feels like a lifetime ago but it’s been six months since we were last together and the squad continues to look stronger than the competition before and I think we’re tacking in the right direction.” There are nine uncapped players in the 36-strong panel while winger Amee-Leigh Costigan, who captained the side throughout last year’s championship, and former co-captain Edel McMahon, are out. The armband has been passed to returning back row Erin King, who Bemand believes is the ideal candidate to lead the green wave into a new cycle.

He said: “Erin embodies the Ireland player of the future of how she attacks training and how she is - honest, driven and a resilient player.”

The 22-year-old recently returned from the serious knee injury which forced her to miss last year’s World Cup and is relishing her new role.

King believes Ireland must target being competitive in both games against the top two and it is not an unrealistic goal.

They were well in the game at half-time in Cork last year when they trailed 7-5, only for England to blow them away in the second half to win 49-5. At the World Cup in the summer, Ireland led 13-0 at the break before France came back with 18 unanswered points to progress to the last four.

“We know we are bridging the gap to the top two teams - France and England. They’ve been professional for a lot longer than us but the last few years of our professionalism is paying off now,” she said.

“Last year we held it to England for a good while so it would be great if we could compete for the full 80 [minutes] against them and get to get one up on France, we can definitely compete with them.

“With the squad we have, we can do things we’ve never done before. We just want to get going.”

Ireland open their campaign away to England at Allianz Stadium with more than 67,000 tickets already sold, guaranteeing an improvement on the existing tournament record crowd of 58,498 the Red Roses set against France in 2023.

Bemand’s side then host Italy in Galway on 18 April before travelling to France seven days later.

Ireland conclude the Six Nations with back-to-back home games against Wales and Scotland in Belfast and Dublin on 9 and 17 May. 

(BBC sport)