Women’s Six Nations: Matching England is possible for improving Ireland – Scott Bemand

Ireland had shocked rugby heavyweights New Zealand in the autumn in WXV1 and were hopeful of making progress against England, although few believed they could win.

However, Amee-Leigh Costigan’s try gave Ireland a platform to build on and some ferocious defence kept England at bay.

The tournament favourites finally got on the board after Aoife Dalton had strayed in front of the impressive Dannah O’Brien’s kick and England capitalised from the penalty to hold a slender lead at half-time.

England’s one area of success in the first half was their scrum, and that continued dominance at the set piece saw prop Niamh O’Dowd set to the sin bin soon after the restart.

From there, England went through the gears and put the game out of sight and Ireland wilted as their hopes of a shock victory drifted away.

“It wasn’t perfect today but hopefully people will see the level of commitment that goes into it and commitment to what the girls are trying to achieve,” added Bemand.

“We had to absorb a little bit of pressure in the first half and there was a little bit of set-piece pressure.

“It’s a game we could have been winning at half-time. There were two kick errors, and we were suddenly trapped in our own 22 and they get a score.

“Until that point we had defended well, we were sensible, smart and we attacked the ball at the right times.

“We had put pressure on the opposition, and we were pretty disciplined with what we were trying to do.”