‘Nothing Beats A Home Game’ – McGann Looking Forward To Dexcom Stadium Experience

Anna McGann says Ireland’s losing start to the Guinness Women’s Six Nations has not dimmed the excitement levels in camp as they look forward to running out at Dexcom Stadium to face Italy on Saturday (kick-off 5.40pm – tickets are available buy here).

The Ireland Women’s team (sponsored by Aon) are the headline act in a first ever double header with their Under-21 counterparts, who will get the action in Galway underway when they play the Italy U-21s at 2.20pm.

McGann was a try-scoring replacement during the Championship opener against England, producing a smart finish in the right corner just under four minutes after being sprung from the bench. It was the first of two final-quarter tries for Ireland, with new captain Erin King also crossing.

While disappointed with the errors made as they fell to a 33-12 defeat in London, it was still Ireland’s best scoreline against England, the reigning World champions, since 2016. The Italian test out west now offers them an immediate opportunity to put together an improved performance.

“I think rolling into this week, they are quite easy fixes and we’ve a home game in Dexcom which will be really exciting. We’ll have the home crowd so hopefully that will bring us up for it again,” said the 15-times capped McGann.

“We’re absolutely buzzing for it. We knew this was going to be a really challenging one (against England) for the first one, and we really had to get up for it. But I still think it is all to play for.

“The Irish travel, we have to give it to them. There was some serious Irish support in the crowd (at Twickenham) but nothing beats a home game. So yeah, we’re really really excited for the next few games coming, the home games and the one away in France as well.”

This is only the second time for the Ireland Women to play an international match at the home of Connacht Rugby. They beat a highly-rated Canada side 15-8 at the Sportsground in April 2006, when Lynne Cantwell, the IRFU’s current Head of Women’s Strategy, Fiona Coghlan, Tania Rosser, and Joy Neville were part of the team.

The College Road venue has changed a lot since then, with the installation of a 3G pitch in 2022 followed by, more recently, the construction of Connacht Rugby’s High Performance Centre and the new Clan Stand with capacity for over 6,500 fans.

The Connacht Women played twice at Dexcom Stadium during the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship last August, and the two Celtic Challenge semi-finals, with the Wolfhounds and McGann’s Clovers both earning home advantage, were held there just last month.

After wearing the number 14 jersey four times during last year’s Six Nations, and making two starts at the Rugby World Cup, the Athlone-born McGann is itching to get back into the team for the Italy game, especially with it taking place at Connacht’s home ground.

“Obviously you want to start. But they had a plan for me to come off the bench against England and be an impact sub, so I took that seriously, and that is what I wanted to do, and that’s what I focused on.

“So, going into this week, I’ll just train away and see what happens. The competition for places, it’s unbelievable. We’ve incredible wingers at the moment, and that probably shows how good our squad is at the moment, that it’s so competitive in every position.

“Bei (Parsons) and Vicky (Elmes Kinlan) were unbelievable (last Saturday), and it’s a credit to them. To be in a squad where you have Bei, Vicky, Amee-Leigh (Costigan), it’s unbelievable.

“I love to train with them. I feed off them. The competition is really good. It’s really healthy. So it’s really exciting.”

If the 27-year-old does come back into the starting line-up this week, it will certainly bring back memories of undoubtedly her best day on the international stage to date. She scored a hat-trick of tries when Scott Bemand’s charges ran out 54-12 winners over Italy in Parma twelve months ago.

Indeed, McGann has been Ireland’s most prolific finisher over the last year, scoring eight tries in as many Test appearances. That includes a brace against Canada in a World Cup warm-up fixture, and a double during the pool win over Spain at the tournament proper.

She manoeuvred herself brilliantly to ground her 64th-minute score at Allianz Stadium, having been fed by Emily Lane off the side of a maul. She absorbed a tackle from Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, cleverly turning herself to avoid touch and reaching out to score as Maud Muir came across.

Although Ellie Kildunne responded soon after, getting on the scoresheet in front of a record Women’s Six Nations crowd of 77,120 was a huge thrill for the Ireland 15s and Sevens international. It has left her hungry for more, and hoping to score in front of five-figure attendances on home soil.

McGann enthused: “It was a class moment. The forwards did all the work for me, so it was just a matter of dotting it down. But, yeah, I think it was a good moment for us and a good lift for us that we needed at that time.

“When we came into the stadium for the Captain’s run, we were looking at it, and it’s kind of just an extra layer onto the Brighton (World Cup) game, an extra tier onto it.

“Some of the girls who played at Twickenham two years ago were ready for it. We probably weren’t ready for it back then, but we were definitely ready for it now.

“I think we embraced the crowd and we fed off the energy, and we fed off the Irish support that were there. I think we’re now at a stage with Women’s rugby in Ireland that this is to be expected.

“It’s not just family and friends in the crowd anymore. So that’s really exciting, and we can’t wait to have our home games where it’s just going to be a sea of green.”

There are some obvious areas Ireland will look to tidy up for the visit of the Azzurre, having conceded 13 penalties, including four at scrum time, and lost three lineouts. They also only made three line breaks and a total of 228 metres from 90 ball carries.

On the positive side, they scored twice from their five 22-metre entries, won 97.3% of their rucks (with almost 70% of them between 0-3 seconds), had a better tackle success rate than England with 90.7%, won 10 turnovers, and finished the first round clash with 67% possession and 68% territory during the last 10 minutes.

In addition, they were able to bring on Katie Whelan and Eilís Cahill for their Ireland 15s debuts, and gave Six Nations bows to Ellena Perry and Nancy McGillivray in the green jersey. McGann felt that the second-half display gives them plenty to build on for the rest of the campaign.

“I think our bench did well when we came on but I think going forward, we need to look at that first half and into the second half and look at where we can capitalise on the pieces that we made and the things that we did well.

“I think we did create things, we just probably didn’t finish them. And there were opportunities there that we left on the pitch.

“I think it stands to us with how we came out in the second half (having been 21-0 down) because usually England are a brilliant team in the second half, and they can run away with things, and we didn’t let them.

“If you look at the second half, it was a 12-all score. We’ll take a lot of confidence from that but we were definitely disappointed to lose the game.”