‘We’re A Better Team Than We Were’ – Scott Bemand on Ireland v England

Head Coach Scott Bemand knows the challenge presented by taking on the Red Roses, the Number 1 team in the World, in Cork on Saturday evening but he says the team has grown and improved since they faced off in Twickenham last year.

Ireland are now 5th in the World Rugby rankings compared to 10th this time last year. Wins against Australia, in the IRFU 150 Celebration, and against New Zealand at WXV1 have been backed by improved performances game by game.

“Last time we turned up to Twickenham, 50,000 people, eight-deep on the walk in. This time it’s in Ireland, and my understanding is it’s going to be close to a sell-out. Ticket sales have been good, people can see what we’re trying to achieve and get on the back of it. That’s going to feed into a young team’s psyche.

“We’re confident, we’ve had a great training week in terms of pressure and how fast we’re trying to play. Now it’s just about producing that performance down in Cork.”

“We all know what happened last year. We’re an honest group, happy to talk about it, but we feel we’ve moved our game on. Hopefully with the result last week and us managing to keep the scoreboard ticking and get to a 50, which we haven’t done in recent times, hopefully it’s showing that the competence and confidence is growing.

“We believe we are further down the road than we were a year ago, and we think we can fire some shots this weekend.”