IT’S BEEN ONE of those weeks where Ciara Griffin’s role behind the scenes has been just as important as the minutes she spends on the pitch.
After the bitterly disappointing defeat to Spain on Monday, the Ireland captain has had to ensure morale and confidence stays at a healthy level ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Rugby World Cup Europe qualifier with Italy in Parma (2pm, RTÉ Player/World Rugby YouTube).
Adam Griggs and his squad have accepted that the 8-7 defeat to Spain was a bit of a horror show, packed with unforced errors and set-piece malfunctions.
Nobody is hiding from the fact the pressure is now on, but Griffin is confident the squad will be able to channel that pressure in a positive manner against familiar foes, Italy.
“From my own personal view, it’s making sure everyone is firstly OK, and checking in because a defeat is tough to take, so making sure everyone is OK both physically and mentally, that was a big thing this week,” Griffin says.
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“Then it’s making sure we’re all on the same page. We all have that target, we all have that same end goal, and we had a talk today about pressure and how you control that pressure, and using it as an advantage.”
That work started before the squad had even left the pitch on Monday.
“After that final whistle against Spain the first thing I did was bring the group in together and said ‘Don’t look sad, we didn’t perform but we got a losing bonus point, there is a competition here to be won.’ We have two games left and it’s all to play for.
No tickets have been punched for that plane yet, so everything is to play for and it’s under our control to perform the way we can perform, that’s the big thing for us. It’s all in our control, it’s not different things being thrown at us outside of it, it’s literally about us doing the job we say we are going to do.
“It’s been very good (this week) in terms of having the conversations with each other, doing the analysis in groups, picking up different things you might not pick up yourself… It has been tough in terms of the result and the performance we put in, because it wasn’t the standard we set for ourselves, but on the flipside it’s been quite healing in that we’ve been here (together) as a group doing the hard graft, not hiding or shying away from the analysis and looking at ways to fix it for tomorrow.”
And on the back of that disjointed showing against Spain, the Munster player says Ireland will keep faith in their gameplan as they look to keep their World Cup hopes alive.
“We have a gameplan for a reason, it’s up to us to stick to it. Then in terms of our defence, get off that line – we can control the linespeed, we can control how quick the ball can be and just set in stone and put what we say into action.
“We want to go out and show what we can do, that we can put in the performance and that we can control it, because a lot of what happened last week was individual errors or systematic errors.
“We’ve done the review, we’ve done the analysis, we’ve been hard on ourselves, which is what we need, and we’re looking forward now to putting in a big performance tomorrow against Italy.”
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey discuss Ireland’s World Cup qualification campaign, the dressing-room debacle which overshadowed the interpros, and where Irish women’s rugby goes from here.
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'No tickets have been punched for that plane yet, so everything is to play for'
LAST UPDATE | 18 Sep 2021
IT’S BEEN ONE of those weeks where Ciara Griffin’s role behind the scenes has been just as important as the minutes she spends on the pitch.
After the bitterly disappointing defeat to Spain on Monday, the Ireland captain has had to ensure morale and confidence stays at a healthy level ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Rugby World Cup Europe qualifier with Italy in Parma (2pm, RTÉ Player/World Rugby YouTube).
Adam Griggs and his squad have accepted that the 8-7 defeat to Spain was a bit of a horror show, packed with unforced errors and set-piece malfunctions.
Nobody is hiding from the fact the pressure is now on, but Griffin is confident the squad will be able to channel that pressure in a positive manner against familiar foes, Italy.
“From my own personal view, it’s making sure everyone is firstly OK, and checking in because a defeat is tough to take, so making sure everyone is OK both physically and mentally, that was a big thing this week,” Griffin says.
“Then it’s making sure we’re all on the same page. We all have that target, we all have that same end goal, and we had a talk today about pressure and how you control that pressure, and using it as an advantage.”
That work started before the squad had even left the pitch on Monday.
“After that final whistle against Spain the first thing I did was bring the group in together and said ‘Don’t look sad, we didn’t perform but we got a losing bonus point, there is a competition here to be won.’ We have two games left and it’s all to play for.
“It’s been very good (this week) in terms of having the conversations with each other, doing the analysis in groups, picking up different things you might not pick up yourself… It has been tough in terms of the result and the performance we put in, because it wasn’t the standard we set for ourselves, but on the flipside it’s been quite healing in that we’ve been here (together) as a group doing the hard graft, not hiding or shying away from the analysis and looking at ways to fix it for tomorrow.”
Adam Griggs has responded to Monday’s loss by making four changes to his starting XV for the clash with Italy, with Griffin moving from the seven shirt to number eight in the backrow.
And on the back of that disjointed showing against Spain, the Munster player says Ireland will keep faith in their gameplan as they look to keep their World Cup hopes alive.
“We have a gameplan for a reason, it’s up to us to stick to it. Then in terms of our defence, get off that line – we can control the linespeed, we can control how quick the ball can be and just set in stone and put what we say into action.
“We want to go out and show what we can do, that we can put in the performance and that we can control it, because a lot of what happened last week was individual errors or systematic errors.
“We’ve done the review, we’ve done the analysis, we’ve been hard on ourselves, which is what we need, and we’re looking forward now to putting in a big performance tomorrow against Italy.”
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey discuss Ireland’s World Cup qualification campaign, the dressing-room debacle which overshadowed the interpros, and where Irish women’s rugby goes from here.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
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