WOMEN'S WORLD CUP PLAY-OFFS IRELAND v USA:USA WILL be hoping to avenge a loss in the pool stages when they face an Ireland side buoyed by their displays in the tournament so far, even if they didn't score enough points against Kazakhstan last time out to realise the dream of a first World Cup semi-final.
“I definitely think they’re going to be out for our blood,” admitted Irish number eight Joy Neville, the only forward among six players currently topping the try-scoring charts with braces against USA and Kazakhstan.
“I’m sure they weren’t very happy about losing to us. They’re going to be a lot more aggressive I feel and I suppose they’re going to try and play a more general movement type of game, but we’ll be prepared for that and hopefully come out on top.
“I’m looking forward to playing USA again, obviously it’s going to be a massive challenge. There are areas that they’ll want to improve upon and there’s certainly areas that we want to improve upon going into the game, so I definitely don’t see this as an easy game at all.
“One thing we got from the last time we played USA by beating them is belief, and the confidence to go into this game with the mentality that we can beat them again. In saying that, we are not going to be overconfident, that’s one thing the Irish aren’t.”
Ireland have been forced to shift Jo O’Sullivan from outside centre to outhalf following the ankle injury suffered by Helen Brosnan in the 37-3 defeat of Kazakhstan, with coach Philip Doyle also making a few other changes, some of them positional.
“It would be a massive achievement . My sole objective of this World Cup was to be placed higher than eighth in the world and do better than the last World Cup. Unfortunately the way things worked out we didn’t make it into the semi finals, which was quite disappointing, but we did everything right as far as we were concerned.
“We beat Kazakhstan by a good margin, but obviously the semis wasn’t there for us, but with fifth place it’s going to be a massive challenge, but it’s definitely doable and we’ll be very happy to be placed fifth.”
The Women’s Eagles have also made changes with coach Kathy Flores making four changes in the forward pack while Emilie Bydwell and Victoria Folyyan come in at centre and wing respectively.
IRELAND: N Briggs; A Davis, L Cantwell. S Houston, E Downey; J O'Sullivan, L Beamish; F Coghlan (capt), Y Nolan, G Bourke; K O'Loughlin, Me Louise Reilly; O Brennan, S Ryan, J Neville. Replacements: C Fanning, L Austin, C Mahon, C Staunton, C Molloy, N Stapleton, M Kelly.
USA: A English; V Folayan, A Daniels, E bydwell, N Marchino; C ringgenberg, K Magrini; F Douglas, M Wallace, L Vivolo, B Groefsema, S Blaney, K Zdanczewicz, B Royce, M Denham. Replacements: L Butts, R Reddick, S Bridges, P Knight, C Knudsen-Braymer, M Kanuk, V McGee.
Venue:Guildford
Kick-off:4.30pm
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