Irish refused to ‘cole over
VETERAN OUT-HALF FOWLEY LEADS BEMAND’S BRAVEHEARTS
OUT-HALF Nicole Fowley produced a first-half masterclass, shaping Ireland’s opening Six Nations game in France in the process.
The Galwegians girl’s (inset) tactical kicking ensured the scoreboard remained under control, sporadically rescued her side, proved instrumental in gaining long periods away from their red zone and pinned the French in their own half at times.
Those who feared near-annihilation in Le Mans were left to admire an Ireland team just 3-7 down after 30 minutes and 3-17 behind at half-time.
What is clear is the ‘new’ Ireland coaching team (well, to the Six Nations anyway) Scott Bemand and John Mckee had pulled a tactical masterstroke – for which, unfortunately, they will be criticised in some quarters – putting the veteran out-half in for the first-half.
Fowley didn’t return for the second period leaving heir-apparent Dannah O’brien come in freed from the idea Ireland were going to be on the end of a 40-60 point hiding; indeed the second half score was 21-14 to the home side.
Fowler’s first-half penalty was added to in the 71st minute by Wafer crashing over from close range following a tap-penalty surge while Dalton pounced on a France mistake close to their line for the second try.
Credit too, to some bravehearted Irish defending, Neve Jones made an astonishing 24 tackles; Brittany Hogan made 16, Linda Djougang 15, Aoife Wafer 14, Dorothy Wall 14, Eve Higgins 13, Aoife Dalton 12, Christy Haney 12; Fowley had 10... in 40 minutes.
Bemand agreed his No.10 had handled the first half-hour particularly brilliantly: “Absolutely. She has got a stack of experience behind her and within our training she has been kicking and playing with ball in hand as well.
“Obviously most of the stuff has probably been a bit more kickbased than ball in hand play and she’ll be a big part of us going forward. The plan was to get them both good minutes here as we bed into the competition, obviously with eyes on Italy next week.”
The decision to take Fowley off at half-time and bring in O’brien had been made well in advance.
“It was tactical as we’ve got two good fly-halves, so it was quite important to give them both good game minutes.
“Obviously Dannah is coming back from an injury, so Nicole got the nod and she did well in terms of where she’s placing the ball.
“Her kicking game, she has obviously a strong footballing background (with Sligo’s Drumcliffe Rosses Point) so understands what the game requires at this level.
“I just felt bringing
Dannah on would be interesting, to try and create a different kicking picture for the French to work out.”
There were three players from the Ireland Sevens programme in the starting side
– Béibhinn
Parsons, Eve Higgins and Aoibheann Reilly – and with only the Hong Kong Sevens (Apr 5-7) scheduled in the Six Nations window it is hoped the XVS can keep them on board.
“I actually thought Beibh had a couple of interesting moments today,” said Bemand. “Would we like to see the ball in Beibh’s hands more often – absolutely – it’s part of what we want to be- come.
“We want people to see a brand that is interesting, that is multi-dimensional and that involves our wingers getting on the ball, it
would be nice to see them on the front-foot and see what they can do. “We’ll look at that. We’d probably like to see the ball in their hands on our terms more.”