Ireland’s players were off media duty last week — probably a welcome break after all promotional work they have done at a time when they need to focus on rugby. We still found someone well-placed to comment on their chances of success at ‘their’ tournament in Tania Rosser, who will be acting as a pundit for Eir Sport alongside Eddie O’Sullivan and Kim Flood.
Rosser featured at a couple of World Cups for Ireland, famously winning her 50th cap in the momentous victory over her native New Zealand in Marcoussis in 2014. She’s also a respected technician, who coaches Clontarf’s men’s 2nd XV and acts as skills coach to the club’s senior side.
Based on our conversation last week, however, it’s clear Rosser won’t be an Ireland flag-waver on TV. She’s concerned about Ireland’s preparation for this tournament. Both the IRFU’s performance director David Nucifora and women’s head coach Tom Tierney are on the record as stating that this will be the best-prepared Irish squad ever, but Rosser worries about the depth of experience of squad which contains quite a few newcomers to 15-a-side rugby.
Part of the reason Ireland were successful in France three summers ago was that they were able to rest almost the entire team that had beaten the Black Ferns for a comfortable victory over Kazakhastan — and squad rotation is vital in a tournament with only four-day turnarounds.
“Tom says they’re the best prepared ever but I don’t know,” Rosser says. “They might be physically the fittest but I just haven’t seen enough solid combinations in their last eight Test matches. They might have one solid combination but you’ve got a number of girls who haven’t got any 15-a-side games under their belt in the last year. You’ve got three or four who have zero minutes playing the 15-a-side game, which is quite concerning.
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“I wonder what the solution is if anything happens to (fly-half) Nora (Stapleton), especially now that Niamh Briggs is out. Sene Naoupu and Jenny Murphy are great in the centre but they can’t be expected to play all five games straight. Then you’ve a back-up scrum-half in Nicole Cronin who doesn’t have an international cap. She’s a flying sevens player and her skill might see her through but she might fall down on game management.”
The importance of keeping his best 15 players fit may explain Tierney’s choice of warm-up opposition in recent months. While pool opponents Australia tested themselves against the might of England, New Zealand and Canada (seeds 1, 2 and 3) in a quadrangular tournament, Ireland restricted themselves to uncapped training matches against Japan (also pool opponents) and against Spain in Cork last week.
For the tournament to be a success from an Irish point of view, Rosser reckons they need to make the last four and that, in turn, probably means topping their pool, seeing because Pool A looks almost a certainty to deliver two semi-finalists in Canada and New Zealand. And this is doable, she says.
“Definitely,” she says. “The issue is that French team in the final pool game. If France decide to turn up, then we’ve got a problem. They’ve got a whole new coaching team since the Six Nations (when Ireland beat them 13-10 in Donnybrook) and they’ve been playing games against the French boys under-19 side so they could come out firing.
“If we can get a good lead on Australia in the first game and pull off some of the key girls, that will help. Australia have some great athletes from their sevens and touch rugby background but they’ve barely played any 15-a-side since the last World Cup. As for Japan, they could be the tournament’s surprise package. They’ve played a lot of games and thrashed Wales recently. But I think we’ve enough leaders in the squad. It’s about managing the key players through.”
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For younger supporters especially, it’s about heroines, role models. For star quality, Rosser picks out Ashleigh Baxter, nominated as World Young Player of the Year for her performances on the wing in the last tournament, now thriving in the back row, also Eimear Considine and Jeamie Deacon of the outside backs.
Rosser backs England to win the tournament but women’s rugby to be the ultimate winner. Some of her fondest memories are of the Irish support in Marcoussis and at the Stade Jean Bouin three summers ago. Having it all happen on home soil should be special.
“When I think of our support in France, when we outnumbered the French, I can only imagine what it’s going to be like here,” Rosser says. “It’s going to be brilliant for rugby and for women’s sport in general, to have all the best athletes on one site. It should be an amazing buzz.”