McMahon: It Shows The Depth And Competition We Have In The Squad

Edel McMahon says it is full steam ahead for Ireland’s maiden WXV1 campaign, with Saturday’s season opener against Australia whetting appetites for the class of opposition they will face in Canada.

The Ireland Women (sponsored by Aon) returned to action with a stirring 36-10 win over Australia at Kingspan Stadium, in a game which marked the start of Irish Rugby’s 150th Anniversary celebrations.

With last season’s co-captain Sam Monaghan currently recovering from ACL surgery, McMahon had the captaincy reins to herself and clearly enjoyed leading the team to their third victory in four Tests.

“We put down a very quick learning (across) two weeks as a group coming in, with staff and players. I’m unbelievably proud of what we were able to produce there on the pitch,” she told TG4 afterwards.

“We were clinical, we played in the right areas of the pitch, and it just shows the depth that we have in the squad, and the competition that we have week in and week out. Just very proud of them.”

This was a significant first-up performance and result from Scott Bemand’s side, especially with their WXV1 debut now just a fortnight away, and new coaches Alex Codling, Hugh Hogan, Gareth Steenson, and Maz Reilly (World Rugby coach intern) still settling into their roles.

Getting the opportunity to play top tier Southern Hemisphere opposition is rare for Ireland, and you have to go back to the 2017 Rugby World Cup for their last two meetings with Australia. Indeed, this was only the nations’ fifth encounter, and Ireland’s second success.

The six-try display showed a lot of cohesiveness and confidence in their physical and tactical approach, and the players have been able to quickly hit the ground running under the coaches’ direction, aided by their recent game-time with their provinces.

“We had a lot of new coaching coming in, girls have been building on confidence from the Six Nations, even from the start of last season in Dubai,” explained experienced flanker McMahon, who won her 29th international cap at the weekend.

“It’s a year on since WXV3 last year, and we have a massive focus heading into a World Cup next year. Detail has been really good, girls have come in and been really sharp.

“Match preparation, girls off the back of the Interpros. People are sharp, people are learning fast, and the detail they keep throwing at us and we keep absorbing it.”

It was McMahon’s second start of the new season, having helped Connacht to win the Interpros’ 3rd-4th place play-off in Belfast last time out. Against the Wallaroos, she made 13 tackles and beat one defender during her 51 minutes on the pitch.

The Kilmihil native (pictured below with her former Exeter Chiefs team-mate Michaela Leonard) felt it was a real squad effort, and unloading a high-quality bench during the second half, including debutants Erin King and Siobhán McCarthy, was a real sign of the depth in Bemand’s current squad.

“To have four first cappers coming in and to put up a scoreline like that, and for it to click. There was no difference between starters and finishers there, and that’s exactly what we want to be as a squad.

“There’s no difference. You start, you finish, you have a job to do, and they were amazing. The mood is really good (in camp), there’s a good buzz there.

“We left probably a few tries out there, for sure. The hunger has been there since we came in. We’re happy with that performance but we want to be better than that again.”

Claiming the scalp of fifth-ranked Australia definitely gives Ireland a timely boost, as their next three opponents, as they make the step up to WXV1, are ranked second, third, and seventh in the world respectively.

Last year’s WXV3 champions will take on New Zealand, the 2017 and 2021 World Cup winners, in their tournament opener at Vancouver’s BC Place on Saturday, September 29 (kick-off 7pm local time/3am Irish time).

Hosts Canada will be next up for Bemand’s charges the following Saturday at the Langley Events Centre (kick-off 3.45pm local time/11.45pm Irish time), before they close out the competition against the USA back at BC Place, on Friday, October 11 (kick-off 12.30pm local time/8.30pm Irish time).

Tickets for WXV1 went on sale at the end of July and are available via rugby.ca. Tickets are sold as single day passes, meaning fans will get access to all matches played on a certain day. There will be live coverage on rugbypass.tv, with the BBC also set to cover the tournament.

The eagerly-awaited trip to British Columbia affords McMahon and her team-mates more training time together with Bemand’s new-look coaching team, and the chance to play more top class opponents, back-to-back, and keep pushing themselves performance-wise.

“We want to keep building as a team. We’re constantly growing, we’re constantly competing. There’s plenty of work-ons there in that game, and we’ll make sure to enjoy tonight, and then refocus and start getting prepped for Canada.

“WXV is huge. It’s not even valuable for us, it’s valuable for the World Cup. It creates an opportunity for international fixtures that teams don’t get outside of a Six Nations.

“It grows the game and grows the competition. WXV1, 2, 3 is driving teams to be better, to invest in their Women’s teams, and to create matches so that they’re playing regularly.

“For us, it’s an opportunity for us to play teams that we’re not regularly coming up against, and we need to be able to do what we did against Australia,” she added.