'WE KNEW IT WAS COMING AND IT'S FINALLY CLICKING' - IRELAND HAVE ARRIVED AT THE SIX NATIONS

THERE ISN’T MUCH that the Ireland players can do to mark their first win in the Six Nations in almost two years.

The tournament is far from over and the next hurdle to cross involves a trip to Twickenham where five-in-a-row champions England await. There’s really no time to drink in a five-try bonus point victory over Wales, either figuratively or literally.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Ireland hooker Neve Jones replies when asked if a celebratory pint might be on the cards after their stunning performance in Musgrave Park.

“Maybe a pint of milk.”

They’ll mark it by simply enjoying each other’s company and arranging a few board games. The word game Bananagram is a current hit among the group, as is Anomia and a few other ones to stimulate the brain. The usual recovery work will follow to get back to neutral, but the time to reset and start preparing for England will come swiftly after.

As they take a beat to reflect on this win against Wales, Ireland can look to their performances in the WXV in Dubai and their opening two rounds of the Six Nations to find the roots of this result in Cork.

“I think we knew that it was coming,” says Jones, “We just had to work hard together and we’ve done so. We’re constantly pushing ourselves to be better so it’s just finally clicking and it’s nice to see and be part of.

“We play rugby to win and it’s fantastic to see and it just helps spur us on for the next game.

“I think over the French week, the Italian week, we’ve really put a lot of paving stones down, and I think we’ve really pushed each other at training this week, we’ve done our analysis and it really proved today.”

Jones was one of Ireland’s five different try-scorers against Wales. The hooker applied the vital touch at the end of a set-piece in the first half, setting up a maul from the lineout and lunging over the line after the heave to deliver a third try of the half for the hosts.

The Ulster forward put in a solid shift for 52 minutes when she was replaced by the experienced Clíodhna Moloney to see out the remainder of the game.

“We’ve got our skill ladder before sessions where we put in our individual work there,” Jones says when asked for her thoughts on her own display. “It’s nice for me to sit back and decide what I want to work on that day, and in the sessions during the week.

“I can work on different bits depending on what the session looks like. It’s great to see, and nice to be part of a team where I can put my best foot forward.”

Commenting on the opportunity to work alongside Clíodhna Moloney upon her return to the international unit this week, she added:

“Cli is a brilliant player and I’ve always looked up to her from a very young age. It’s great to have her back in camp, she’s got a vast knowledge of experience. She really helps both myself and the other hookers that are in the team as well as the whole entire front row. So it’s great to have her there as the brains behind a lot of things.”

And so to the pressing matter of England away. Scott Bemand’s squad accept that this will be an enormous task who have won all of their games by considerable distance so far in this series. They hammered Italy 48-0 in the first round, and defeated Wales and Scotland by a combined total of 82 points. It was a complete shutout when they came to Musgrave Park last year.

Jones is familiar with a lot of the English players through her club Gloucester-Hartpury who she recently signed a new deal for. She knows what expect from the Red Roses, but with the improvements shown in Ireland’s form so far, there’s no need to fear what England will unleash on Saturday afternoon.

“I don’t think so. We’re constantly growing as a team and we’ll do some analysis on them. Like we know what they bring. Last year we still held them to the half. It’s just what happens after the half and we’ll look at that this week and see what we can bring into that.

“I know quite a few of the English girls myself and same with the Welsh so it’s always nice to play against team-mates that you play with at club so I think we’re looking forward to it.”

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2024-04-16T06:42:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd