‘Constantly growing’ Ireland not afraid of Red Roses, says Jones
Ireland hooker Neve Jones says playing the top-ranked team in the world holds no fear for them.
The Irish women face England in round four of the Six Nations at Twickenham on Saturday, with the RFU announcing yesterday that over 44,500 tickets have already been sold for the contest.
Ireland ended their seven-game losing run in the championship with a 36-5 win over Wales at Musgrave Park last weekend.
The bonus-point victory lifted Ireland to third in the table, an automatic qualifying spot for next year’s Rugby World Cup.
England – aiming for their sixth Six Nations title in a row – have dished out some heavy defeats to Ireland. The Red Roses won 48-0 in Cork last year, while they ran out 69-0 winners in Leicester two years ago, although Ireland had held them to 10-0 at half-time.
Jones is familiar with England players through playing with some of them at her club, Gloucester Hartpury, and against them in the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR). Coming up against England doesn’t come with any dread in her mind.
“I don’t think so. We’re constantly growing as a team and we’ll do some analysis on them. Like, we know what they bring. Last year, we still held them to the half. It’s just what happens after the half and we’ll look at that this week and see what we can bring into that,” Jones said.
“I know quite a few of the English girls myself, and same with the Welsh, so it’s always nice to play against teammates that you play with at club [level], so I think we’re looking forward to it.”
Jones was one of Ireland’s five try-scorers against Wales on Saturday. Her first-half try from a line-out maul was her second five-pointer of this campaign after she also dotted down in the defeat to Italy two weeks ago. Saturday’s win was their best performance in a few years.
“I think we knew that it was coming, we just had to work hard together and we’ve done so. We’re constantly pushing ourselves to be better, so it’s just finally clicking and it’s nice to see and be part of.
“We play rugby to win and it’s fantastic to see and it just helps spur us on for the next game.”
Having played the full 80 minutes in the two opening games, Jones was replaced by Cliodhna Moloney after 51 minutes in the Wales game. It was Moloney’s first cap for Ireland since November 2021.
Jones used to be the player who came on to replace Moloney in Ireland games before the Galway hooker’s exclusion from national squads for over two years.
“Cli is a brilliant player and I’ve always looked up to her from a very young age. It’s great to have her back in camp, she’s got vast knowledge and experience.
“She really helps both myself and the other hookers that are in the team as well as the entire front row. So it’s great to have her there as the brains behind a lot of things.”