Fiona Coghlan's Rugby Diary The Six Nations championship is now over, and we finish a decent third place. Although we ended with the same number of points as France, they get second place on points difference.
England, as predicted, won their fifth Grand Slam – but they didn’t have it all their own way against France, and it went down to wire for England to win it 11-10.
We were very happy with our final two games. First up we had Wales, a team Ireland had only ever beaten once before in 2005. We were in control for the entire game and ran out 18-3 winners – it was a great win.
We enjoyed it for the night, but once Saturday morning came, we turned our focus to Scotland, a team on the up that had beaten France at the beginning of the tournament. Our coaching staff put so much effort into analysis to try and give us that extra little bit, and they identified areas of Scotland’s game that we could target.
On the morning of the game, conditions were perfect for the type of match that we wanted to play. Unfortunately, as the day went on the weather deteriorated and we knew we would have to change our game plan slightly to suit the climate.
It was a very tough first half against Scotland, but we turned it around in the second half and began to gain control. Eventually our dominance paid off and we went over for two well-worked tries. We finished the game strongly with a final score of 15-3.
So after three months of being on our best behaviour, it was now time to let our hair down and party! Ashbourne RFC really did put on a great show, with a wonderful after-match function and disco. We didn’t made it back to our hotel until two in the morning – to be honest, as much as we wanted to stay up, we were exhausted.
The following morning we had a debrief session for the Six Nations and we looked towards our World Cup preparation. But for now we return to our club teams to finish out the league and cup campaigns. We will have the month of May off from all rugby but will be in the gym, doing strength and conditioning work, and in June we will come back together as a squad.
Over the course of the Six Nations we’ve developed a strong squad of 25, each of whom received a decent amount of game time. There are also girls yet to return from their travels abroad, and some injured girls that are looking to make the World Cup squad, so it will be an exciting few months for us.
After our meeting we had a lovely lunch with family and friends as a small thank you for all their support throughout the campaign. Then we watched the men’s game together before heading into Dublin to cap off a great weekend.
Sadly the men’s team were a little inconsistent in their Six Nations this year, and I have no doubt that they will be bitterly disappointed about the final game. In fairness to Scotland, they deserved to win and targeted key areas where they knew they’d make inroads.
There was significant pressure on the Irish squad as they won the Grand Slam last year, but they are not a bad team overnight, and I still think in the years to come we’re going to see even more great days from them.
I can’t wait for them to return to the new-look Lansdowne Road stadium, as I hope there will be a better atmosphere. I think there will be many more great days of Irish rugby to come.
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
