Guinness Women's Six Nations Round 4 Review

Where did that go?
While it seems like an age since Ireland began the Women’s Six Nations with that opening game against France in Belfast five weeks ago, it’s also flown. And now here we are before the final game of the championship for Ireland against Scotland at Hive Stadium, Edinburgh on Saturday.

Ireland have all but guaranteed a third-place finish in the table for the second year in a row. They’ve a five-point advantage over fourth-placed Italy and a superior points difference. While Ireland finished third last year with two wins, it’s three away wins that Ireland have targeted this year and they’ve ticked two of those boxes with bonus points victories.  

Tangent
A slight tangent: while England and France will have their usual end of championship showdown, there’s no silverware on offer for the other teams. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a give-a-medal-to-everyone line. In the men’s Six Nations, for example, they have the Triple Crown which the Ireland men’s team won this year even though they didn’t win the Grand Slam or championship. There is no Triple Crown equivalent in the women’s championship but imagine if there was a Celtic Cup on offer for the nations who compete in the Celtic Challenge which is between teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It would mean there would be silverware for play for between Ireland and Scotland which would just add something extra.

Although Ireland would probably say they’ve enough to play for to get that third win of this championship.

Despite conceding an unfortunate early try in a tricky opening half against Wales at Rodney Parade on Easter Sunday, Ireland also showed they were a different class. Aoife Wafer, Dorothy Wall and Linda Djougang scored two tries each and Wall looked like she was about to score a hat-trick when she made a break in the fourth quarter. Scoring six tries is nothing to be sniffed at but Ireland should have scored more and that was certainly what the head coach Scott Bemand and the players were saying after their 40-14 win. Stacey Flood – who was excellent in starting the moves for some of the tries – won’t want to see a replay of her failing to hold onto the ball when she was just metres away from the tryline for what would have been Ireland’s seventh try.

Can we take another moment to appreciate Aoife Wafer?
She’s now Ireland’s leading try-scorer in this Women’s Six Nations with four tries after her double against France in round one. Bemand spoke after about helping her become a generational talent but without placing too much pressure on the 22-year-old, she’s already fast becoming a generational talent. It was her first time this season getting the official player of the match award as she also finished the day with the most carries (24) and the most metres carried (175) of any player.

Thing is, there’s no doubt that the news last week about Erin King missing the rest of the year including the World Cup with a knee injury would have affected players including Wafer. King helped make that backrow truly world class. Molly Scuffil-McCabe admitted there was an element of getting that win for Erin who watched the game at home with a few of her team-mates.

But others really stepped forward in the absence of King. Challenging Wafer for player of the match was Dorothy Wall as she delivered arguably one of her best performances this season. She was immense in the loose and has grown into a real leader of this team.

Closing the gap
What Ireland are showing in this Women’s Six Nations is that while they are closing the gap on England and France in the top half of the table, they are widening the gap over the rest in the bottom half of the table. They could have hit 50 points for the second half in this championship if they had been more ruthless in Newport which was why Bemand said he felt “a little bit flat” after.

“I’d hope to lay down a bit of a statement victory. I think we had 16-18 minutes at the end there where we could have kicked on and that could have been 50/60 [points],” Bemand said. “We sort of asked the right questions early doors and weren’t able to convert those points but, on the whole, coming away and getting the second win probably carries the day.”

Ireland have just a six-day turnaround to their final game against Scotland but last Thursday they spoke about that in a meeting, about the various things they need to do in terms of hydration and recovery so they can start this week in the best possible state. They left Wales on Sunday night as opposed to leaving the following day to help aid their recovery.

Ireland will now look to finish this Six Nations with a third away win, and what an achievement that would be. A nice rivalry has developed between them and Scotland and they’ve played them in the final round since 2022. And they’ve largely been tight games, it was a Dannah O’Brien penalty that was the difference in a 15-12 win last year. However in Edinburgh two years ago, Scotland won 36-10.
But Ireland are a different team now and they will look to finish the job on Saturday.