Adam Griggs: “These Camps Are Always Going To Be Intense.”

World Rugby announced last week that Ireland’s women would take on their Scottish, Italian and Spanish counterparts in Parma’s Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in a four-team round robin with games on September 13, 19 and 25. 

The tournament winners book themselves a spot at Rugby World Cup 2021 in New Zealand. 

The squad reassembled in July and will continue preparations on Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown. 

“Camp 1 was about bringing the squad back together and making sure we have an understanding and clarity of what we’re leading into and what we’re about to do,” the Ireland Women’s Head Coach told IrishRugby.ie.

“In Camp 2 we stepped up the preparation and last weekend was about backing that up. Going into those World Cup qualifiers, we know it will take a full squad effort for us to be successful. 

“Our camps take place across a Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we’ve got five sessions to get through across a weekend. Two of those are key performance sessions and we have other sessions that look at the precision and clarity around how we’ll look to play in September. 

“These camps are always going to be intense, but the players are committed to that. It’s also about what we’re doing in the analysis room and in our team walk throughs. When we prepare well mentally, we come out and train well physically and it’s important to improve on that with each session.”

Ireland finished third in a modified Women’s Six Nation for 2021 with wins over Wales and Italy and defeat to France.  It’s given the squad a benchmark as they build towards a critical series of games. 

“There’s been a lot of uncertainty over the past 18 months but we managed to play the Six Nations and got those three games in,” says Griggs. “We now have to be really on point in these block of camps. There’s no room for us to get complacent around the work that we’ve put in. Italy are a team we have to play again in September, so we have to be sure that we keep growing. We’ll adjust and adapt a couple of things in terms of our game plan. We know what we do well and we just have to make sure that we back that up. 

“As players and coaches, we’re always setting goals around what we want to achieve and tick off. To have the dates locked in for our games gives us a good focal point. It means we can plan our preparation right down to the last minute of how we train when we get to Italy. Knowing our game days allows us to plan to build through the week and the intensity we’ll need to bring to any given session as well as your game plan and how you’re going to move around the field. Having that locked in means these next two camps are so important to box those things off.”