Ireland not yet ruling fullback Lauren Delany out of Six Nations clash with Wales

Delany was forced off injured during last weekend’s 27-21 defeat to Italy, with Ireland head coach Scott Bemand issuing a positive update in the immediate aftermath of the game at the RDS.

The Ireland squad regathered this week to review their performance, with Bemand not yet ruling Delany out of contention to face Wales, who are also winless after the opening two rounds.

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 4th April

“Lauren picked up a bit of a bang like we reported straight after the game, she was up after the game and back on her feet,” Bemand said.

“She may take a couple more days, other than that, we're two games in, two hard games and over a month of preparation and we're in pretty good health as a group.”

Despite falling short in both of their opening two games, Bemand is confident that Ireland are on the right track heading into the crunch meeting with Wales in Cork.

“Absolutely,” he insisted.

“So we'll talk about confident performance. We won't ever shy away, we talk about winning, we're really comfortable with that. Going away to France, it was always going to be a tough start, but we saw some green shoots and emergence of character and resilience.

“Against Italy, we produced a performance that would ordinarily produce a win. We didn't manage to get over the line in that but we'll keep going after the confidence and the stuff we did well.

“We're pretty certain that those wins aren't too far away.”

Bemand dismissed the suggestion that Ireland had been hindered by a lack of leadership, as he backed his players to prove the doubters wrong.

“It’s always interesting what people on the sideline say, lack of leadership on the pitch when they are outside of the circle,” the English man added.

“We’ve got some unbelievable leaders in our group and, look, the game looks different now to what it used to.

“We have strategy groups, we have co-captains, they are unbelievable leaders. So how quickly these girls are developing, they are already at a level way which is way beyond their years.

"They are going to keep developing experiences but as a group we absolutely buy into them and I wouldn’t want any other people in those groups.”