‘We Really Want To Perform To Our Best’ – Higgins

When Scott Bemand announced his first Guinness Women’s Six Nations squad last year, Eve Higgins was one of three players included who were involved in Ireland’s historic HSBC SVNS Series title win in Perth the previous month.

With 2025 being a Rugby World Cup year, and Bemand being able to embed more Sevens players in the programme, he admitted it is ‘going to be really exciting to see what they can do’ in this Six Nations.

Featuring in his 40-player group for this year’s Championship are Higgins, Amee-Leigh Costigan, Stacey Flood, Erin King, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Emily Lane, Béibhinn Parsons, Claire Boles, and the uncapped Amy Larn, who all played at last summer’s Olympics in Paris.

Having that additional attacking firepower, particularly in the back-line, will be a big asset in Belfast this Saturday as Ireland entertain France, a team they know well from recent encounters, and their joint-training sessions during the WX1 campaign.

“I don’t know how known it was, but we trained against France twice in Vancouver,” said Higgins. “The week leading into the New Zealand game (in the first round of WXV1) we had our heaviest session against them.

“We got to train against their backs then again before the USA game. I think we gained a lot of confidence coming out of those training days, especially because it put us in a great place going into the New Zealand game to perform.

“France have some key star players, (Pauline) Bourdon Sansus is one of the best (number) 9s in the competition. They’ve (Gabrielle) Vernier, they’ve great forwards and it’s very much a power game.”

Since climbing up the ladder to finish third in last year’s Six Nations, Ireland won three of their four matches in the autumn, including the 150th Anniversary Test against Australia at Kingspan Stadium, the venue for this weekend’s clash with les Bleues.

When Higgins first faced France in the 15s game in 2021 and 2022, there were Covid-19 parameters to navigate and also the hurt of missing out on qualifying for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

She scored her first 15s international try during that meeting in Toulouse three years ago, and also started against the French in Le Mans twelve months ago. The latter fixture finished in a 38-17 defeat, not the result Ireland wanted but a late rally offered encouragement.

“It’s been years since we had actually scored tries against France and we came away from that game with two late tries,” noted the 25-year-old centre, referencing the scores from Aoife Wafer and Aoife Dalton.

“But that does bring a bit of confidence that we’ve progressed over the last few years. I think we’ve been great as a team to put goals in place, and we’ve been achieving them for the last year.”

Now with 21 Test caps to her name, Higgins was ever-present in the Irish midfield throughout the 2024 Championship, starting with either Dalton or Enya Breen, and scoring against Wales.

After a try-scoring appearance off the bench against Australia in Belfast, she started against WXV1 hosts Canada, either side of cameo roles in the victories over the Black Ferns and the USA.

That successful autumn run has installed even more belief and confidence amongst the squad, with Higgins saying: “Even before going to Vancouver, we had beaten Australia and every week the talk was we wanted to build on it.

“We obviously got off to a great start at WX1 with beating New Zealand, but then also we took a lot of learnings from Canada – we lost 21-8 but after the game everyone wanted to play that game again and fix the mistakes we made.

“From our hard work we came out of WXV1 with two wins and a second place finish which was huge for the team. It was a huge change from being in WXV3 the year before.

“I think it’s really put in a belief in this team that when we have our process (right) – we have a great coaching team behind us as well – that we have such clarity that I think every single one of us is really looking forward to going into a Six Nations again.

“We want to build on the Six Nations last year and put out great performances. Everyone just wants to do each other proud, and to actually show all the work that we’ve put in for the last number of weeks.”

Higgins herself was one of the stars for the Wolfhounds as they retained the Celtic Challenge title most recently. Lining out alongside a number of her Ireland team-mates, she ran in seven tries in eight outings, and had over 800 running metres, 12 linebreaks, and 40 tackle breaks.

The cross-border competition saw Tullow youngster Dannah O’Brien finish as the top points scorer with 74 points, and Nicole Fowley, the Clovers’ regular number 10, also breached the 50-point mark.

Talented teenager Caitríona Finn, one of the uncapped players in Bemand’s Six Nations squad, gained valuable experience as a debutant with the Clovers, playing eight times and accumulating over 400 match minutes.

Those three out-halves will be crucial to the strong kicking game that Ireland are taking forward, under Bemand and kicking coach Gareth Steenson who, as Hugh Hogan explained earlier this week, is ‘with us more full-time now’.

With Flood, Breen, and Méabh Deely high up too on the list for kicking metres in the Celtic Challenge, Higgins acknowledged how important strategy-wise it will be to have quality kickers to call upon against Europe’s elite in the coming weeks.

“We have Nic (Fowley) and Dannah (O’Brien) who are great kickers, and Caitríona (Finn) who has unbelievable distance. I don’t know how many 50:22s and cross-field kicks she’s hit in the Celtic Challenge.

“We’ve gained a lot of confidence from playing our game, in that sense of playing in the (right) areas of the pitch and not overplaying in areas of the pitch that we don’t want to.

“I think the likes of France, they’re going to want to play from anywhere and they’ve a great offloading game so the worst thing we can do is to fall into that trap of playing like them.

“We want to just play (to) our strengths, and I think the variety of our kicking game has really come on, that we can see that as a strength.”

Higgins said the players took a lot out of the Celtic Challenge as a preparatory block for the Six Nations, and in her own case with the Wolfhounds she was able to play regularly with Dalton and O’Brien either side of her.

The Lucan native even got some game-time at full-back during their win away to Brython Thunder, and she agreed that the adaptability of the squad to play in different positions will be ‘key’ as Ireland strive to continue on an upward trajectory.

“The opposition was not near what France will be at the weekend, but the fact that we got to play in different combinations week in and week out, and in combinations that we’re experiencing here in the team, it’s huge for us in connections.

“The fact that I got to play off Dannah (at number 10) so much is huge and it will grow both our games. We know how to play off each other, and it gave us invaluable experience together, especially in game scenarios.

“Also we had Scott and Hugh coming to training sessions every week, so there was still that in the background that we were focusing on a Six Nations coming up and what areas of our game that we needed to grow, with constant feedback in the background as well.”

As she swaps her Wolfhounds jersey for a green shirt, she added: “Every week there’s a focus. It’s not just train to train. We have a key focus going into every week.

“We’re after doing four weeks of a different focus every week, and that gives us clarity going into this week. Everyone wants to step up and to really bring it on Saturday because that’s what the public is going to see.

“That’s why every single one of us wants to wear a green jersey. That’s our goal for every player. It’s no good just doing it in training, we want to perform on the day.”