There are all sorts of metrics to track progress, and decline. Should Ireland find themselves playing in Twickenham come late September then the chart explaining the women’s senior team form will be through the roof.
It’s 15 months since they turned up at the home of the RFU and conceded 14 tries and a combined 88 points against the hosts. Return to that leafy corner of the English capital in two months’ time and it will mean they have reached a World Cup semi-final.
That’s progress at the speed of light, should it happen.
It is the stated goal that Scott Bemand’s players have set for themselves as they put almost two months of pre-season work to the first test this Saturday when they face Scotland in one of two tournament warm-ups.
“I haven’t probably talked about it this much this week because the focus is Scotland,” said hooker Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald. “We have openly spoken about it, probably in the previous two preparation blocks, about the group goal being getting to London. We know what we need to do at each stage but we’re not overestimating.
“This week is about Scotland, next week will be about Canada. Then it’s about selection and getting over there and then it’s each game at a time. And the pool games are each going to be very challenging in their own way. So, yeah, there’s an overall goal, but nobody is really too focused on that. Right now it’s week-by-week at the moment.”
The squad will be revealed on August 11, two days after that second trial run against the Canadians in Belfast. Ireland’s tournament starts on the 24th against Japan at Northampton’s Franklins’ Gardens and continues there against Spain a week later.
New Zealand’s world champions, in Brighton’s Amex Stadium, completes their pool.
Moloney-MacDonald is the only member of the current training squad who has played at a World Cup before. The team didn’t qualify in 2021 and she was 24 when Ireland hosted in Dublin and Belfast four years earlier but so much has changed since.
Women’s rugby has kicked on and Ireland are in a very different place now than then. The national team was still near the start of a downward spiral eight years ago. Now they are clearly on the up but with that direction challenged by the loss of big players to injury.
The pack has been denuded for the World Cup by the loss of Erin King and Dorothy Wall while Aoife Wafer, the reigning Six Nations player of the year, is recovering from knee surgery and fighting to be ready.
Scrum coach Denis Fogarty said on Wednesday that the staff are “quite confident” Wafer will make it, that she had not been “ruled out”. She won’t play either warm-up. The smart money is that the early pool stuff, at least, will play without her too.
Others have to step up, but will they?
“You can only tell so much from training, so that’s why this weekend is so important, and the Canada game, and it’s important as well for them to grow in confidence,” said Moloney-MacDonald.
“Nobody knows how they’re going to do, it’s important that we put them in the best position possible to have the best experience and feel as confident as possible going into a World Cup. Yeah, I do feel confident.” It’s been a long summer road just to this point. The prospect of a game will be manna from heaven for players who have been diverting themselves with competitions to see who benches most in the gym or with the odd game of foot-golf.
Building the mind is every bit as key as preparing the body and the squad has had the honour of a visit from European Indoor 3000m champion Sarah Healy who is currently tracking towards her own World (Championship) bid come the autumn.
“Yeah, it was really interesting,” said Moloney-MacDonald. “Obviously it’s great to always get perspective from different sports people but also she’s quite accomplished in speaking in the corporate world, I think.
“It was really good to just talk through maybe situations that might arise around selection and stuff like that and how she would approach those from a different mindset.
“In lots of ways around this time preparing for a World Cup, it’s a kind of inexperienced group in that way. So it’s good to talk about those things, and then you can have a kind of framework in your own head in place for how you’ll deal with each scenario.”
