Ireland aiming to give supporters 'something exciting to cheer about' in Six Nations clash with Wales

Three wins in the third-tier WXV3 last October got the project up and running and there have been shafts of light this spring seen during defeats in France and at home to Italy at the RDS a fortnight ago.

Yet while the defensive performance in Le Mans in round one displayed a distinct uptick under newly-arrived assistant coach Declan Danaher, and the attacking intent shown against the Italians a week later was a healthy step forward, today’s showdown with a similarly winless but higher-ranked Welsh team represents an opportunity to go one step further and deliver a long-awaited first Six Nations victory, not just of the current campaign but since the last round of 2022.

Nothing is guaranteed of course but inside the Irish camp confidence is high and there is certainty that the squad has come a very long way since last season’s meeting with the Welsh in Cardiff, an opening-round 31-5 loss from which their championship never recovered.

Co-captain and second row Sam Monaghan was in ebullient mood yesterday following Ireland’s eve of match training session on the 4G surface at Virgin Media Park, where upwards of 5,900 supporters will gather for a 4:45pm kick-off and will their side to get over the finishing line.

“It’s really good,” Monaghan said of the confidence within the squad. “There’s a buzz in the camp. We’ve had some really tough sessions this week and last week we got to train against the lads, the Barnhall Under-20s, so having that speed and power to train against is brilliant.

“It ups our game… it was great. We had the weekend to recover and then it was game week again and we really hit the ground running this week off the back of last week.” 

For both her and co-captain and flanker Edel McMahon, Ireland’s success hinges on an ability to execute their gameplan and convert opportunities into tries, something sorely missed for all the positivity of their attack in a 27-21 loss to Italy last time out.

McMahon is hoping to give the Cork crowd “something exciting to cheer about” and the Exeter Chiefs back-rower from Co. Clare added: “Hopefully we continue to create opportunities like we did against Italy and actually just execute that, get some scores on the board.

“We’re starting to see that in our campaign, we’re getting tries, it’s something we’ve really been going after; our savage set-piece, we want the crowd screaming for us and we want to entertain them.

“It’s execution… I just think it’s down to the cohesiveness. Confidence comes from clarity and I think we’ve got quite a lot of clarity over what we’re going after on both sides of the ball with Dec in defence; with John (McKee) we’ve been doing a lot of work in our lineouts this week and how we’re going to attack and defend those, especially with what Wales bring in their set-piece. And then from the attack point of view, really going after an ambitious attack, getting to the edges and being ambitious, being brave in how we play.

“So from a clarity piece, we’re really cohesive on that and that’s why we’re starting to really build now.” For defence coach Danaher, combatting Welsh breakdown threats will also be key, judging the visitors to have been unlucky to lose 20-18 at home to Scotland in round one before falling 46-10 to England at Bristol’s Ashton Gate.

“They had a tough loss against Scotland and if they had got their maul going a bit quicker they probably would have come away with the win,” Danaher said.

“Against England they had a really good first 20, unfortunately England had a very good first 20 defensively, just repelling them. That momentum swung back England’s way, with the intercept try, one minute Wales were on England’s line attacking, the next they were conceding seven points.

“Wales will be looking at both those games thinking there were opportunities if they can get their maul going and convert some of the momentum, they’ll look to get a foothold in the game against us.

“Against Italy we created a lot of chances but we turned over a fair bit of ball in the contact area and the ground. We know Wales will come after our breakdown, they will come hard at us there. The girls are aware we’ve got to be hot on that from minute one. They’ve got players in their back row and across the field that can carry the ball pretty quick.

It will be a battle at the breakdown, can we keep hold of it, while they try to hunt and turn our ball over.” 

• England’s Sara Cox becomes the most-capped female referee in Test history when she takes charge of Ireland v Wales today, her 38th Test.

IRELAND: L Delany (Sale Sharks); K Corrigan (Leinster), E Higgins (Leinster), E Breen (Munster), B Parsons (Connacht); D O’Brien (Leinster), A Reilly (Connacht); L Djougang (Leinster), N Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), C Haney (Leinster); D Wall (Munster), S Monaghan (Gloucester-Hartpury) – co-captain; A Wafer (Leinster), E McMahon (Exeter Chiefs) – co-captain, B Hogan (Ulster) Replacements: C Moloney (Exeter Chiefs), N O’Dowd (Leinster), S McGrath (Ulster), F Tuite (Ulster), S Ikahihifo (Ealing Trailfinders), M Scuffil-McCabe (Leinster), N Fowley (Connacht), A Dalton (Leinster).

WALES: J Hesketh (Bristol Bears); J Joyce (WRU); H Jones – captain (Gloucester-Hartpury), K Lake (Gloucester-Hartpury), C Cox (Ealing Trailfinders); L George (Gloucester-Hartpury), K Bevan (Bristol Bears); G Pyrs (Bristol Bears), C Phillips (Harlequins), S Tuipulotu (Gloucester-Hartpury); A Fleming (Harlequins), G Evans (Saracens); A Butchers (Bristol Bears), A Callender (Brython Thunder), B Lewis (Gloucester-Hartpury) Replacements: M Reardon (Cardiff Met), A Constable (Gloucester-Hartpury), D Rose (Saracens), N John (Brython Thunder), G Hopkins (WRU), S Jones (WRU), K Powell (WRU), C Keight (Bristol Bears).