IRELAND WOMEN’S HEAD coach Greg McWilliams says he is “super proud” of his team following a heavy defeat to England which marked their fourth Six Nations loss on the bounce.

Ireland conceded eight tries in their meeting with the defending champions at Musgrave Park, and failed to score any points in what was another tough afternoon for McWilliams’s side. They will now face into a crunch tie against Scotland next weekend, where they will hope to clinch a win and avoid the wooden spoon.

And while Ireland failed to trouble the scoreline today, there were some positives to draw from their performance including the fact that they rendered England scoreless for over 30 minutes in the second half.

“I’m super proud of this group of players because they’re getting it from people, from different angles, and that’s the way the world is when you’re playing in the spotlight. For this team to rally the way they did, I’m incredibly proud of them.

“They work really hard in camp, people outside don’t get a chance to see what we see; a group of players working hard for each other. That’s something you’d be proud of because if you have that you always have a chance. We have to get better though, there’s parts of our game there that just isn’t clinical enough. We’re playing against a really good England side and we had a plan, and we stuck to it for good moments of it.

“It was 27-0 going into the second half, we had a really good plan coming out at half time. For the 30 minutes of the second half, it was 0-0 and we had some good opportunities. 27-0 going into the last 10 minutes, and they brought on some power of the bench that was strong, and they scored a couple of late tries, but I’m very proud overall.”

McWilliams acknowledged the blemishes in Ireland’s display, including the numbers of tackles missed as well as lineout issues which saw them relinquish possession to England on a few occasions. The Irish team also went into this game on the back of shipping heavy criticism for their performances to date.

A result next weekend is a key objective for the team now to ensure they don’t finish the Six Nations on a winless note.

“It’s maybe a line in the sand moment, I thought we saw a group of players that started to believe in each other, and we saw that in front of our eyes. When you see that, you have a chance.

“There’s big improvements, but I also see areas that have to be better to play international rugby. Hopefully we can rest well, build into next week, a massive week against Scotland.

“It’s a bit of an opportunity for us to go into what is like a cup final next week, that’s exciting. We get another chance to challenge the group. Nichola (Fryday), and the leadership group, seeing it unfold and see them grow in this short space of time is very refreshing.

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