“Training Against France Was Really Valuable” – Hogan On WXV1

An intense training session with France earlier this week was ‘really useful’ for the Ireland squad and Number 8 Brittany Hogan as both sides prepare for the WXV1 in Vancouver.

Ireland make the step up to the top tier thanks to their third place finish in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations. They’ll face World Champions New Zealand in the first game, followed by host country Canada and then USA.

Hogan was pleased with the step up in training and the challenge it posed:

“We had a good blowout in the Canadian rain but it was good to put into action on the pitch what we’d walked through in our meetings. It was very valuable to us to see that come to fruition.

“When you’re training against each other we all know the plays so to have a team that has no idea what we’re doing was really valuable”

IRELAND’S WXV1 FIXTURES:

• Sunday, September 29: New Zealand v Ireland, BC Place, 7pm local time/3am Irish time (live on RugbyPass TV)
• Saturday, October 5: Canada v Ireland, Langley Events Centre, 3.45pm local time/11.45pm Irish time (live on RugbyPass TV)
• Friday, October 11: USA v Ireland, BC Place, 12.30pm local time/8.30pm Irish time (live on RugbyPass TV)

For the full list of WXV1 matches, please click here.