6 Nations (Women)

[Dave Cahill]

Lindsey Peat is out for the remainder of the 6 Nations

And to prove the Union's commitment to gender equality, Cian Healy will miss the remainder of the 6 Nations

[Dave Cahill]

The France Women’s XVs are to travel to Dublin to complete the final fixture of the 2020 Women’s Six Nations after it emerged that isolation requirements for elite athletes returning to Ireland had put the fixture at threat.

Ireland Government guidance for elite and high-performance athletes, and teams, who travel back to Ireland from a country which is not on the travel Green List, is to restrict their movements for 14 days, aside from sporting activity such as training and competing. The France Women’s XV can travel to and from Ireland without restriction as there is no requirement from the French Government to isolate on return to the country

This is not an issue for the Men’s National Team, who, as full-time professionals remain within a strict high-performance bubble on their return from away fixtures. However, as the Women’s National Team members are amateurs, it is not possible for many of them to commit to isolating for 14 days following a return from the match, if held in France, as they, understandably, have responsibilities to their families and employers, some of which are in the teaching and medical communities.

The IRFU, fully appreciating the players’ commitments, had, over the past weeks, discussed the implications of the travel guidance with Sport Ireland and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media to explore if a derogation on the guidelines was possible, as the players are operating in a highly controlled high performance ‘bubble’. It was confirmed this week that such a derogation from the guidelines could not be granted. The IRFU understood and fully accepts this decision.

IRFU Chief Executive, Philip Browne, said: “We are extremely grateful to the French Federation and their Women’s Team for this superb act of solidarity with the Ireland Women’s Team and IRFU. To experience such generosity of spirit is uplifting and goes to the very heart of what the sport of Rugby, and the Six Nations, is all about.

“Over the past weeks, we were in regular contact with Sport Ireland and the Expert Group on Return to Sport regarding a possible derogation for the Women’s National Team from the established guidelines. With Ireland entering a Level 5 lockdown we fully accepted the decision not to grant a derogation on the travel restrictions for elite amateur athletes.

“I wish to thank the French Federation and their Women’s Team on behalf of all involved in Irish Rugby for their decision. We now look forward to hosting the French Women’s XV and the fixture here in Dublin, and both teams can get back to concentrating on Rugby.”

[blockhead]

Not 6 Nations but.....
WORLD RUGBY HAS confirmed that the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will be postponed until next year due to challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
FFS!

[Auld Boy]

Green light for 6 Nations to kick off in April. Nice to see 5 uncapped players included.

[Ruckedtobits]

Really excellent performance by Irish woman in which the value of their preparation produced a very sophisticated performance with some really well worked tries. Some excellent new talent identified.

[blockhead]

Parsons is a superstar.

[fourthirtythree]

Parsons is a superstar.

Was saying that to my mates earlier on. I wish the men had a player like her. Unfuckingplayable at times. Such a star.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Bad day the office. Good start but once France got a score or two we seemed to fall apart. Game management was pretty poor, seemed to constantly give France opportunities to attack us.

Definitely lots of talent and I do think we’re better organised than before the break but it doesn’t really matter if the other team is much bigger and running at you all the time.

[OTT]

Bad day the office. Good start but once France got a score or two we seemed to fall apart. Game management was pretty poor, seemed to constantly give France opportunities to attack us.

Definitely lots of talent and I do think we’re better organised than before the break but it doesn’t really matter if the other team is much bigger and running at you all the time.

A couple of the early scores for France were from bad individual errors that were punished. We tried to play a lot of rugby but the pressure from France was insane, they dominated the breakdown, our ball was so slow we had to commit so many to each breakdown and even at that it wasn’t often we got the ball back.

We have a few players who look like they are a step above the rest and they were the ones who usually made the big mistakes because they were trying to make something happen out of nothing eg Considine, Wall and Parsons.

Think we just need to understand it’s an amateur team playing against a semi-pro, it’s like our men’s team playing against one of the tier 2 sides. The score usually takes care of itself and we worry about the performance more. At the minute our goal has to be beating all the other amateur teams and we look well capable of that and trying to live with the semi-pro/pro teams as long as we can.

Hugh Cahill again showing his lack of class and understanding of the situation when losing interest in the game he was commentating on because of the score and talking about the let down after the performance last week. What an absolute clown he is.

[Dave Cahill]

Plus, Plastic Bertrand is Belgian

[Ruckedtobits]

Hugh Cahill again showing his lack of class and understanding of the situation when losing interest in the game he was commentating on because of the score and talking about the let down after the performance last week. What an absolute clown he is.

"Clown" is being exceedingly gentle. He is thundering Pr$%k with no class and a rugby ego about his knowledge and reading of the game, both of which are at a pretty minimal level.

Fiona Coughlan was fairly hard on the Irish woman who were playing a style of rugby not suited to contain opponent with more strength, power and pace in almost every position. This was a game to be played by putting ball behind our opponents and using the short-side to turn them. Not pretty to watch and it limits our scoring chances, but it does reduce their opportunities.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Bad day the office. Good start but once France got a score or two we seemed to fall apart. Game management was pretty poor, seemed to constantly give France opportunities to attack us.

Definitely lots of talent and I do think we’re better organised than before the break but it doesn’t really matter if the other team is much bigger and running at you all the time.

A couple of the early scores for France were from bad individual errors that were punished. We tried to play a lot of rugby but the pressure from France was insane, they dominated the breakdown, our ball was so slow we had to commit so many to each breakdown and even at that it wasn’t often we got the ball back.

We have a few players who look like they are a step above the rest and they were the ones who usually made the big mistakes because they were trying to make something happen out of nothing eg Considine, Wall and Parsons.

Think we just need to understand it’s an amateur team playing against a semi-pro, it’s like our men’s team playing against one of the tier 2 sides. The score usually takes care of itself and we worry about the performance more. At the minute our goal has to be beating all the other amateur teams and we look well capable of that and trying to live with the semi-pro/pro teams as long as we can.

Hugh Cahill again showing his lack of class and understanding of the situation when losing interest in the game he was commentating on because of the score and talking about the let down after the performance last week. What an absolute clown he is.

Very true about the best players being the ones to force things.

Hugh had a great moment in the first half when he thought Tyrell missed a kick to touch but it was a free kick from outside the 22. Happened again a few minutes later and he still didn’t cop it.

He really does lose interest at times. He’s often just trying to have a laugh or talking about something irrelevant when something big is happening.

[blockhead]

Blown away I'm afraid by better players.
Only 3 or so of the team have played rugby from an early age. The rest started in college or even after college. Peat started in her 30s. The england squad is made up of players who all bar 1 or 2 have been playing since before they were or 10 and have played all the way up. The French are similar. A decade of work is required for that to change.

[blockhead]

Griggs drops Claire Molloy out of the team.

“We had a conversation with Claire earlier on in the week around some of the performances,” Griggs began while speaking to the media about Molloy’s absence from the squad.
“She’s got things that she can still work on at the moment

Ouch. Usually one of our very best players.

[Oldschool]

Anyone knowledgeable enough to make educated predictions for the three "playoffs" at the weekend.
Uneducated predictions.
England to win.
Ire/Italy very tight.
Wales/Scotland no idea but Scotland at a push.
Do the bookies do up odds for these games.

[blockhead]

Ireland played quite well today but Italy were suprisingly poor for the 5th ranked team in the world.
Eng v Fra was a proper game though.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Griggs drops Claire Molloy out of the team.

“We had a conversation with Claire earlier on in the week around some of the performances,” Griggs began while speaking to the media about Molloy’s absence from the squad.
“She’s got things that she can still work on at the moment

Ouch. Usually one of our very best players.

I wasn't aware that he'd said that, I'd assumed she was carrying an injury and it wasn't mentioned. That seems really strange, something very off there.

Italy really couldn't get out of their own half on Saturday, it's been a long time since I saw a game so one sided in terms of territory. Good win but a poor game, lots of really sloppy handling errors and again they failed to get Parsons into the game much. I know Wales were terrible but that game now looks like a bit of a miracle performance by Ireland, I think the joy of being out there and doing well from the start really upped the confidence levels but maybe the quality hasn't improved as much as I had thought.

Discipline really needs to improve as well. I can understand the silly penalties against France when they were dominated physically but they were totally on top on Saturday so there was no need.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Hannah Tyrrell and Katie Fitzhenry are retiring. I saw that Tyrrell was playing for the Dubs last week but wasn’t sure what the story was, seems a very strange thing to do considering she started a couple of games in the 6N and is only 30. Would love to know what the story is there, big loss to the squad.

[blockhead]

Team selected for the 2022 Six Nations opener v Wales starting this weekend:
15. Eimear Considine (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) 23
14. Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union RFC/Munster) 6
13. Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC/Leinster) 6
12. Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC/Leinster) 7
11. Lucy Mulhall (Wicklow RFC/Leinster) 1
10. Nicole Cronin (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) 16
9. Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht) *
1. Linda Djougang (ASM Romagnat Rugby/Leinster) 17
2. Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury/Ulster) 6
3. Katie O’Dwyer (Railway Union RFC/Leinster) 5
4. Nichola Fryday (Exeter Chiefs/Connacht) (capt) 22
5. Sam Monaghan (Wasps/IQ Rugby) 5
6. Dorothy Wall (Blackrock College RFC/Munster) 10
7. Edel McMahon (Wasps/IQ Rugby) 14
8. Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster) 7
Replacements:
16. Emma Hooban (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster) 8
17. Chloe Pearse (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) 2
18. Christy Haney (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster) *
19. Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC/Connacht) *
20. Hannah O’Connor (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster) 7
21. Kathryn Dane (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster) 18
22. Enya Breen (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) 9
23. Beibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht) 15

The experimentations continue at 10. Nicole Cronin is the lastest to be tried, normally a scrumhalf.

[Ruckedtobits]

Irish team are pretty close to a very competent team. A few maul sessions with Jimmy Duffy or Paul O'Connell would work wonders because it's most body positions and angles, not physiques.

The result is disappointing but other than mauls we were competitive. Our line-out also needs work and looks like amateur hour on their ball.

Really impressed with quality of tackling and some of the off-loading skills. Certainly a better performance than against Spain or Scotland. Keep working at it.