REPUBLIC OF IRELAND women’s national team manager Vera Pauw says next week’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Finland is a “final” — and stresses they’ll keep their pants firmly around their waists.
A win at a sold-out Tallaght Stadium next Thursday will secure the Girls In Green a play-off with one game to go as they look to reach a first-ever major tournament. “It will be massive if we can surprise the world,” the Dutch coach smiled at one point.
‘If you put pants on that are too big, they will go down to your ankles,’ is a Dutch phrase she has used before, similar to our, ‘Getting too big for your boots,’ and she used it once more ahead of a decisive Group A double-header.
Sweden have automatically qualified, with Pauw’s side currently second ahead of the Finland showdown [KO 7pm, live on RTÉ 2], and remaining tie away to Slovakia on Tuesday week.
Pauw agreed that it’s a massive opportunity, but urged calm in her squad announcement press conference at Sky HQ this morning.
“It is. But it’s not an easy job to do. Many are thinking ahead of it. But Finland was the better team away, we stole the points over there. This is their last chance. They will not underestimate us. And we have to know where we stand.
“They just played the Euros. That can be a pro or a negative. But they have three major games in their legs at this moment, with a rest period in between. So we need to see where we stand. The thing is we need to be ready as always, and then we need to see if it’s enough, and if the luck is a bit on our side.
“We really feel it’s a final. I want to repeat – and I am not downplaying – I don’t see us as favourites. I see that this is a big, big game and it will be very difficult to get a result. The situation is completely different to the first game. I hope you remember that we scored early and I hope you remember how we have played under pressure later in the game. It is a really hard game but we will be ready and we will do everything we can to get a result.”
Finland come to Dublin with U17 manager Marko Saloranta in temporary charge, after Anna Signeul was sacked following a poor Euros showing in which they lost their three group games, conceded eight goals and scored just once.
“The manager says that he made a lot of changes, but actually of their Euro team, there’s only two players off the bench not there. All the other players are there. And he brought in two extra players. So that makes four changes, and those are four youngsters. If they will play, we will see.”
On Ireland’s absence from the Euros, she added: “We should have been there. It still hurts. We deserved to be there but we have given it away ourselves against Ukraine.
“I think the team has grown a lot, but we have to stay realistic in where stand and where we are. It will be massive if we can surprise the world, but we need to be realistic that it will be a very hard task. But not something that’s undoable. We will be ready.”
(Surprise the world by reaching a major tournament, she later clarified — “We only play to reach the tournament. But step-by-step. First we have Finland.”)
Pauw isn’t overly concerned that a good chunk of her players remain in pre-season action — of the 28-strong squad she named today, 11 operate in the Women’s Super League which is yet to return — without competitive fare since Georgia on 27 June, and before that, early May.
“That’s something we have to deal with. We’ve kept all the game minutes of every single player of the long-list, and it looks like now, the last two weeks, all the core players are playing full games, so game rhythm will not be an issue.
“We’ve been building against Georgia how to deal with it, players have responded so well and now they have been playing already for five weeks, so it’s not a real concern. Although we would have, of course, been glad with a competitive game in England, especially players in England because Scotland is in competition already and of course, Ireland has been in competition the whole way. I think we’ll be fine in that sense.”
The manager is hoping to now build on the momentum of the team’s highest-ever world ranking (26th) and biggest-ever home crowd, no major separate preparation needed for a potential full house.
“It’s fantastic. I think it was within 30 minutes that the stadium was sold out. And that’s the first ever [time]. The biggest crowd we had was just over 5,000. So now in 30 minutes, to have the whole stadium packed is amazing and fantastic.
“Probably two sides; we have earned that, but it was also during the Euros, all the hype of the Euros. We are so happy that that comes together. And the crowd will support us. What’s amazing is what the FAI has done, we’re so happy with that, 2,000 of the tickets are solely reserved for children. At least 2,000 girls of grassroots clubs will be there. And then with all the support that we have, with all the other people in, that is what we feel is the best of this all.”
“This squad is so special,” she added. “We have played in front of a big crowd in Sweden, a big crowd in Finland. Everybody was saying, ‘Will this bring up the pressure for them?’ We’ve played almost a full house at home. These players are independent of that. Of course we work a lot on being independent of it – it’s not coming by itself. But I’ve never seen a team responding so well on different circumstances than this team. They are so focussed, they really know what they are doing on the pitch. We’ll see if that’s good enough. But no, I think it will only be a boost for us.
“We have earned this position. So why would you neglect it? This is us, this is what we earned over the last years. Not the two years that I have been in charge but going back over 20 years. In 2008, this team qualified for a play-off for the Euros – Áine O’Gorman was already in that squad at the age of 16!
“This team has grown step by step by step by step. And now we are in the position that everybody expects something from us. We know what we want. We have found our limits. That is why we played those games against the big opponents last year. We know our limits and we know that we are growing.
“But we will not put on pants that are too big in size. I said that before. Because those pants will end up at your ankles. We can only succeed if we are realistic.”
The squad report into camp on Sunday, 27 August.
Great move for Arnold who’ll be coming out of his 3 year contract with Brive at only 28.
Hopefully he can build up an impressive reputation and shine for a wayward Brive side similarly to Farrell in Grenoble.
The first of many players across the four provinces who will be making this call in the coming months. With the fewer games in the URC and none in international windows game time has got more and more precious. Connacht are well served at centre with Aki, Daly, Farrell, Robb, and Bolton remaining. Other Irish players I could see similarly on their way to pastures new include Gallagher, any one or two of Healy, Crowley, and Flannery and Loughman at Munster and Ed Byrne, Josh Murphy, Penny, and the two O’Brien’s at Leinster.
@David Finn: i wouldnt include Robb here…hes never fit to play. I cant see Connacht holding on to him to be honest
@David Finn: ….you may not have all the names exactly right but your point is well made. Revive the 5th Province Meath, base it in Navan and develope the facilities to match in what is already a very progressive and ambitious club with a proven track record of growing the game to cater for diversity and an impressive record of progress on the field.
@Michael Murray: There is no need for another province what we need in Ireland is a draft system from schools rugby so players go where they are needed most. No use in IRFU shelling out money to keep 8 top class Irish back rows at leinster and then other provinces having to shell out big money for NIQ back rows makes no sense at all. Worst performing province gets first pick of the talent pool each year. We should also move the provincial schools tournament to a national level.
@Punts & Race Discussion: this is an interesting idea, but Leinster can only signup x amount of players each year to academy contracts.
There are still dozens of players who leave school in Leinster who aren’t signed by Leinster but aren’t picked up by other provinces at this early stage.
Also because of the amount of positions, it would take years before a drafts benefits would kick in.
And Leinster only add 4 or 5 players into the academy each year. So that’s 1 round of picks between the 4 provinces. Either way it still means theres talent coming out of schools in Leinster that provinces are ignoring currently.
@Billy Keenan: Leinster sign them to the sub academy so they stay and play their club rugby in Leinster rather than chance a trip to another province
@john joe brady: yeah that’s a good point and there was an article in the indo a few years ago saying something like 20 players were involved in sub academy.
But surely you’d have to say that an Academy contract would outweigh a sub academy one ?
Think Connachts of Illo from the U20s would be an interesting case study. ATightehad (not a position of typical leinster depth with salanoa, angier bent and McGrath leaving recently) who played underage rugby with Leinster. Could be good to dive deeper into what went on there and how he was brought west, a great talent.
@Billy Keenan: and Leinster took on 7 into the academy this year, which in fairness is much more than the 4 I said they did earlier ^^
@Punts & Race Discussion: absolutely no sense in changing Schools comp to national level. For a start you could have Bandon Grammar/PBC/CBC Cork/Newtown Grammar playing up the top of the country. The local rivalries are what drives the Schools Cups, and kids spending hours sitting on coaches to and from games against Schools they have no inbuilt rivalry with will detract from their enjoyment..
Also Connacht, (Garbally apart) doesn’t have schools where Rugby is the main (or only) Sport with male enrollments big enough to compete with other provinces. There are barely a handful of Boys only schools left in the province and fewer against with enrollments near 500 or more…
Anyway the underage Interpro’s pretty do the job pretty well anyway….
@Punts & Race Discussion: so basically force kids to play for teams even if they have no interest in playing for them? Move to a provience where thsy have no connections?
So say a lad from west cork was picked by ulster and said no i dont want to go there do se ban him from playing for his local club?