The England game panned out better than we would have expected at this stage of the season. Things got off to an awkward start with some confusion prior to the match about the singing of anthems – England were adamant that this was a full international and wanted to sing, but because we weren’t considering it as a full international, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) didn’t want any singing.
Eventually an agreement was reached, that England would sing before they went out. To be honest I don’t know what the big fuss was all about; we were there to
play a rugby match, not win a singing competition. Maybe if I was in their shoes I might have felt differently about it.
The final score was 19–8 to England, which doesn’t reflect how the game was played for 75 minutes. We started the stronger team, which was evident as we drew
first blood with a penalty and then a try. England always looked dangerous in attack and then they scored, which left the half-time score 8–7 to us.
After the break our defence was still resolute and some monstrous tackling was going on. But unfortunately our attack wasn’t quite what it should have been and
this led to missed chances. With five minutes to go we were still leading and then one of the English team needed to be put on a spinal board and brought to
hospital. This was a disastrous break in play for us, as it gave England time to regroup.
It is shocking to say that in five minutes, England scored two tries to win the game – our defence that was so good just crumbled. It was a chance to get an
historic win over England which we let slip out of our hands. We need to learn to finish these games off, be ruthless when we are ahead. It was great to have a
game of this standard prior to the Six Nations, to see what areas are going well and where we need to improve.
Over the holidays we met up a few times in small training groups, for weight and fitness sessions. It was great to get these sessions done together, as sometimes
you end up only half doing them on your own.
We had another training session and training game last weekend. It was brilliant to have some injured players back, seasoned internationals Orla Brennan, Jetty
and Shannon. They make such a difference to the squad. Orla in particular is great as there is always food in her room, she doesn’t bring it for herself but for
the rest of us – one might call her ‘Florence Nightingale’ as she is always looking after people.
The weekend probably didn’t go as well as we would have liked. The weather really didn’t help, but we could end up playing in these conditions in the Six Nations
so we need to be able to adapt how we play. At the moment I don’t think we have trained to the level that we are capable of. It is really frustrating and you
keep questioning how you can improve but sometimes things just don’t click and if you over-analyse it your training might never improve.
One very positive element of the weekend was a seminar by the IRFU performance nutritionist Ruth Wood Martin. She spoke about the importance of diet,
supplements, hydration, etc. What was very valuable was the way she delivered it from an amateur athlete point of view. Due to our work and training commitments,
diet sometimes takes a back seat when in fact it should be one of the most important elements.
Onwards and upwards, now we look forward to the French match, our first Six Nations game.
Ireland meet France on 7 February at St Mary’s RFC, Templeville Road, Dublin at 7.30pm
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
