We Have To Be Smarter When Opportunities Come – Bemand

Scott Bemand said that his side will learn a lot from the 40-0 defeat to New Zealand in the final Pool game at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Brightone yesterday.

Bemand was also upbeat on the injury situation but said it was still to early to fully assess who will be fit for the quarter final clash with France, “Stacey has got a cut on her foot, so we’ll certainly need to have a look at that and try to get that fixed up as best as we can and as quick as we can.

“Both Eve and Edel have come off but I’m pretty hopeful they’ll come through pretty quickly. As I stand here now, with what I know, I’m pretty hopeful that everybody is going to be fit and raring to go next week.”

Ireland started the game well and had several opportunities throughout the game to get on the scoresheet but lacked the cutting edge that might have got them over the line.

“I think in terms of how we started the game, we created momentum and we created opportunities and if you look back at that I think we’ve just got to be a little bit smarter in how we take points when we’re in the score zone.

“If you look over the last two weeks, we’ve actually been pretty clinical in terms of getting into the score zone and coming away with points. Clearly, a different challenge against New Zealand in the type of athlete and the type of player they’ve got, the physicality they bring. The fact we’re getting in there and creating momentum and getting opportunities to get ‘ins’ will be something we’ll look at and go ‘OK, we understand we need to do more of that again against another World Cup contender next week’.

“We just need to be a little bit smarter in how we get over the whitewash when those opportunities come.”

Ireland struggled to contain the Black Ferns power and pace at times but Bemand feels it is something that the team can learn from.

“We knew how New Zealand defend, culturally, we know that they embrace the physical side of the game.

“We know that our ball movement has got to be a bit quicker, so sometimes, at the end of the first half, we got a bit passive, a bit steady with the ball, and then their line speed can get you behind the gainline.

“When we were fast with it, we got the ball to the edge and made some momentum, there were times we caught behind it and times we created opportunities.

“So look, there’s bits we can go at, but acclimatising to playing at this speed is a big part of our growth.”