Ireland’s 29-27 win over world champions New Zealand in the WVX1 tournament may have been surprising for Irish fans to wake up to on a Monday morning, but among the squad the belief has been building for some time.
“We knew it was going to be difficult, but I think we stuck to our game plan and knuckled down on what we needed to do out there and get the win over the line,” explained Irish winger Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe.
“Going in there we all believed that we could do something special and put out the performance that we wanted to do, and I think our actions show that.”
Ireland’s victory over the Black Ferns, along with their recent win over the Wallaroos in Belfast, will further bolster the team’s mentality as they face into the second-round challenge of Canada.
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Hosting the top tier of the tournament, Canada are ranked second in the world having leapfrogged New Zealand at the weekend on the back of a thumping win over France.
Ireland defence coach Hugh Hogan says the team will draw confidence from the New Zealand win, but there’s still room for improvement.
“A massive positive for us was our calmness, our clarity. We didn’t deviate from the plan, we had belief in what we wanted to go about at the weekend.
“We knew New Zealand would test us, and we were stretched at times, but we were able to actually handle them, and we were able to create opportunities.
“There’re always things we can improve on. There are aspects of our defence we can get better, there are layers to our attack that we’re going to try and build in over the course of this competition, so we’re looking to improve again this week.”
With just a six-day turnaround to the Canada game (Saturday, 11.45pm Irish time), Hogan says the squad have been quick to “turn the page”.
“It starts with how hard the girls work off the pitch – the players are incredibly diligent ... so when we come to the pitch there’s real clarity and we’re able to make sure we can focus on what’s going to be important for the weekend.”
But Canada are showing real confidence in their play, with Hogan noting that 46-24 first-round victory over France, “so we definitely have huge respect for the way they play the game, and we know it’s going to be a physical battle, we’re going to have to front up.”
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