Bemand ‘Delighted’ For New Caps As Ireland Continue To Develop Depth

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand was happy with how the players ‘moved through the gears’ to emerge as 27-21 winners over Scotland in Saturday’s opening Rugby World Cup warm-up match.

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Understandably there was a degree of rustiness to Ireland’s play early on at Virgin Media Park given this was their first game since late April, and there were three new caps involved and a number of players returning from injury.

However, having fallen 14-0 behind, they outscored Scotland by five tries to one over the remaining hour, with Sadhbh McGrath, Méabh Deely, debutant Nancy McGillivray, and replacements Niamh O’Dowd and Deirbhile Nic a Bháird all touching down.

Bemand confirmed beforehand that they have not named their World Cup squad internally yet, and with that announcement to be made public on Monday, August 11, a couple of days after they play Canada in Belfast, the competition for places is at its fiercest.

“First game after pre-season, you kind of go get your straps back. Test match arena, obviously after a seven-week build-up, I think we probably looked like we hadn’t had a game last week, whereas Scotland came out and looked like they’d had a game,” he said, referring to Scotland’s first warm-up fixture away to Italy.

“So they were slightly more battle-hardened than us, but I was really pleased with the girls. There was no sense of panic, it was, ‘Okay, well we understand what we need to do and how we’re going to do it’, and they simply just moved through the gears.

“I think there is more to come from us as well. We left a few points out there. We built pressure on their line, so there will be some bits to learn from that.

“But it wasn’t going to be perfect, first game out after a summer off. What we wanted to see were shoots, we wanted to see that we could go after certain bits of the game, and that we can get through the gears quite quickly on those.

“As we know, next week we’ve got Canada coming. The challenges keep coming thick and fast now, and hopefully that puts in a good space to go over to England and attack the World Cup.”

It was encouraging to see how well some of the combinations went, with captain Sam Monaghan – returning from a 14-month lay-off due to an initial ACL injury, and calf and hamstring problems – forming a strong second row pairing with the fit-again Eimear Corri Fallon.

Monaghan got an industrious 36 minutes of rugby under her belt, while Corri Fallon played the full game on her return from a ruptured Achilles tendon. She made 11 carries and six tackles, had one line break and four lineout takes, and beat two defenders.

Replacement lock Fiona Tuite combined with the influential Corri Fallon to very good effect, and finished with a team-leading 18 carries in 44 minutes, coupled with one line break, five tackles, and six lineout takes.

In the back-line, there was much to admire about squad newcomer McGillivray and Eve Higgins’ first outing together in the centre. Between them they made 21 carries and beat six defenders, scoring a try and providing an assist in the process, and were credited with 10 tackles each.

Try scorer Deely and Béibhinn Parsons made their first Test appearances since the 2024 Six Nations, while emerging back row talents, Ivana Kiripati and Ailish Quinn, both won their first caps, showing the calibre of player coming through the Under-20 programme.

Bemand admitted: “I’m delighted for the first cappers today. We got a try on debut for Nancy. That’s going to create more competition. We know the quality and calibre that Aoife Dalton has in that 13 shirt.

“Nancy coming in and starting to hit her straps as she went through the game there so delighted, not just for them, but it’s a really important piece for us in growing our capability, and we’re developing some depth.

“I thought Ivana (at openside flanker) kept fronting up, and then getting Ailish on the pitch (as her replacement). There’s players there that you’re going to see for not just this World Cup, but the World Cup after.

“If we look past this World Cup to the next one in Australia 2029, we’ve probably got three groups of back rowers (now) and the competition is going to be immense.

“We spoke about growing depth within our shores here and hopefully the future is looking bright. On the back of that, it’s probably worth a shout-out to the returning girls.

“There’s been a few that have not played much rugby for over a year, and to get them back on the pitch, and to come through a battle, not an easy win, but a battle, is a big testament to all the hard work they’ve done to get back.”

There was a key spell before half-time when Ireland managed to seize control, pinning the Scots back to score two tries in quick succession. 20-year-old prop McGrath powered over from close range, having won a scrum penalty on her side just a couple of minutes earlier.

Ireland’s best bit of execution in attack followed shortly afterwards, a nicely-worked lineout sending player-of-the-match Grace Moore on a tackle-breaking run. After four pacy phases, some sharp handling out to the right released Deely to go over in the corner.

Bemand acknowledged that that productive period showed his side were ‘there to play’, and that Deely’s well-crafted effort had ‘a little bit of that ruthless touch’. They will need that and more against Canada next Saturday, as the world’s second-ranked team provide the opposition.

Asked about likely changes for the clash at Ulster Rugby’s newly-renamed Affidea Stadium (kick-off 12pm – tickets are available to buy here), he added: “It’s about a squad effort, it’s about building cohesion. We’ll have a look at what we need to get out of next week.

“This was game one, and we go into next week against Canada with some bits to get after and we’ll certainly get after it. In WXV, Canada pushed England pretty hard (in a 21-12 defeat).

“It’s a great chance for us to see how far we’ve come. We wanted to build performance momentum, and there’s areas of that game where we can say we have.

“We’ve got new caps on the pitch, we’re building our depth all the time. Now we’re ready to go and test it against a World Cup contender.”