Steenson: We Want Everyone Firing And Ready To Go

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The Ireland Women (sponsored by Aon) will host the highly-rated Canadians at Ulster’s renamed Affidea Stadium (kick-off 12pm – tickets are available to buy here), in their second and final warm-up match before the Rugby World Cup.

Last week’s 27-21 win over Scotland in Cork gave Ireland some early impetus, especially with some notable names returning from injury, and Nancy McGillivray, Ivana Kiripati, and Ailish Quinn all getting on the pitch to win their first caps.

With the much-anticipated World Cup squad announcement coming on Monday, just under a fortnight before the opening Pool C game against Japan, this is the last chance for players to impress outside of training.

“It’s been a really good training week,” said Steenson, speaking at the IRFU High Performance Centre. “Obviously the Scotland game was the first hit-out the girls have had. Good to get that down in the Cork, the support that they had as well.

“The debutants, we were all really pleased with how they have went. We were all really pleased to get them in and get minutes into them. It’s a really important piece for them, and it also connects them into the group and what we’re doing.

“It was a real positive from that point of view. We want everyone firing and ready to go. We want competition for places. We don’t want to be rocking up to the World Cup and some people are sitting maybe not feeling that they’ve had the opportunity.

“Again, girls are going to get an opportunity this weekend, first of all to get minutes and obviously to put their hand up for that first pool game, which is coming pretty soon.”

Currently ranked second in the world, Canada have not actually played Ireland on Irish soil since a 48-7 victory at the UCD Bowl in November 2016. Current squad member Nicole Fowley started at outside centre that day, with Larissa Muldoon – now an assistant backs & attack coach – the replacement scrum half.

Canada head coach Kevin Rouet has already selected his 32-strong squad for England 2025, which will be led by out-half/centre Alex Tessier, a 2024 World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year nominee, and features former captain Sophie de Goede who recently returned from a long spell out due to an ACL tear.

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom, Olivia DeMerchant, and Karen Paquin bring a huge amount of experience with three World Cups behind them each, while a total of 21 players lined out during the last global show-piece in New Zealand in 2022 when Canada finished fourth.

Hooker Emily Tuttosi was one of the that World Cup’s top try scorers with six overall, while Rouet can call on seven players who were part of the Canada Sevens squad that won silver at last year’s Olympics, with Olivia Apps and Fancy Bermudez among them.

The kicking battle was crucial when Ireland lost 21-8 to Canada in Langley last October, with Tessier and Claire Gallagher credited with 714.8 kick metres between them, and Dannah O’Brien, Stacey Flood, and Fowley kicking for a combined 879.8 metres.

Steenson reckons he has seen a lot of growth in Ireland’s game since that fixture which saw props Linda Djougang and Niamh O’Dowd sin-binned before Eimear Considine crossed for the only points of the second half.

“The girls have come a long way since that Canada game last year. I’ve been in here now a year working with the girls, and the evolvement of how they’ve performed…ultimately we went across to that competition, and kicking was a big part of what our DNA was.

“It was almost making it quite a rock then for us, but that was a building block. It also allows us now to grow, as we have done. You would have seen that when we went into the Six Nations, that growth piece again, looking to try and play but still having that kicking game in the background.

“We’ve been developing that for the last year, and obviously Canada are going to bring a lot of threats across the board, whether it be the kicking game, or just their physicality and everything that they can bring.

“But we’re going to look to use that (kicking) potential, have that on the back burner, but we also have another few tricks up the sleeve when required.”

A Champions Cup and two-time English Premiership winner with Exeter Chiefs during his playing days, Steenson had a special 16-year association with the Devon club, including four within the coaching set-up, before returning back home with his family last summer.

With a keen coaching eye, the 41-year-old has done a lot of good work with his childhood club City of Armagh, as attack & backs coach with their Men’s team last season, and the Ireland Women’s programmes, where he has enjoyed working with a number of teams, and adding more responsibility to his role.

“When I moved back home a year ago, I was very fortunate to come in and work with the (Ireland Women’s) pathway, work with the Sevens, right across that kicking regime,” he explained.

“I’ve been very lucky since the Six Nations, doing a little bit more in with the backs, a bit more work in that area. Looking at strike plays and stuff like that.

“I’ve been very fortunate to almost be part of the growth piece as well (as a coach). It’s been really exciting, I’ve loved it. Now that we’re on the brink of the World Cup, it’s very exciting.”

It has been a win-win situation since Steenson was appointed as the Ireland Women’s first dedicated kicking coach, embracing an accelerated challenge at international level with a squad very much on the up, with the Scott Bemand-driven environment thriving on a collaborative approach.

Of course his expertise is not just confined to kicking, and given the ups and downs he experienced as a player, including that trailblazing start as a World Championship finalist with the Ireland Under-21s, the former out-half is ideally placed to add value across a number of scenarios.

Seeing a lot of similiarities between this ambitious Ireland squad and the Exeter team that emerged out of the English Championship in historic circumstances in 2010, Steenson admitted: “I’ve been very lucky, my career had a lot. I’ve been in captain’s roles, I’ve been dropped from teams, I’ve had injuries, I’ve had everything.

“That resilience piece of even moving away from home, being rejected from here whenever I was trying to come through as an Ulster player, and being part of a team that was very fortunate to have a rise as such.

“I’ve just been trying to use those experiences and pass them on as best I can. I very much see the group as a group that I was involved in many, many years ago at a rugby club that was trying to gain itself into promotion and then become a top European side.

“So the piece that we’re at here now, when I look at the girls, the development piece, the energy in the room is phenomenal each time. Even there now, we just had a connection piece, there’s so many people working so hard to push this team forward.

“If I can pass any of those experiences on, whether through place-kicking, whether it be through tactical play, backs play, attack, anything. I’m very fortunate to be involved with this group.”