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Gutted, Heartbroken And Proud – Bemand & Monaghan On Ireland’s QF Loss

2025 Women's Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final, Sandy Park, Exeter, England 14/9/2025 France vs Ireland Ireland's Sam Monaghan speaks to the team huddle after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Scott Bemand said he is incredibly proud of the Ireland squad after today’s heartbreaking defeat to France in the Quarter Final of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Exeter today.

France went into the game 20 point favourites but Ireland defied the odds and the conditions to dominate the first half and take the match right down to the wire.

“I’m really proud, really proud of the group and where they’ve come from in the two years is my immediate piece.

“It was a tough Test match today, the occasion – you think a year ago, that group might have felt the occasion more but I could see it in the eyes of the players when they stepped off the bus… the Irish support has been fantastic all the way through the competition.

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

“The crowd was singing the Field of Athenry and our group don’t get daunted by that any more. They get excited by it.

“It was a tough Test match in terms of conditions, we tried to play the conditions really, really well. There were some bits that that worked, some bits put us under pressure.

“And with a young group, we’ve always been talking about the next four-year cycle as well, we know that this group is going to stick together, and this group’s going to get better and better.”

Ireland’s Nancy McGillivray, Siobhán McCarthy, Nicole Fowley, Ivana Kiripati, Niamh O’Dowd, Emily Lane, Enya Breen and Beth Buttimer dejected
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Skipper Sam Monaghan who gave her all throughout added, “Look, that’s what I asked from the girls at the start of the game. ‘Don’t let the moment can buy you leave everything you can out there’. I truly believe we did.

“You can see it in the player’s faces, they are heartbroken. But it’s such a proud [dressing-room].

“I couldn’t ask for more from them. We gave it all, we brought them to 90 minutes, probably, in the end with the five minutes from the first half, but I’m extremely proud of this group.

“It is a young group as Scott said. Only one player out 32 has experienced a World Cup before, so you know, if you do look back two years ago, we were competing in WXV3, and we were very, very close to winning a World Cup quarter-final there.

“We’re gutted, we’re heartbroken. We know we could have had that game, but we’ll hold our heads high, rebuild and go again.”