New-look Ireland Women's side are ready for first big test

Now more than ever, Ireland could pay heed to the ways of Phil Jackson. The legendary NBA coach rebuilt the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan unexpectedly retired to

play baseball. Jackson somehow moulded the Bulls into a force to be respected in the play-offs despite losing basketball’s greatest player in his prime.

“We didn’t lose, we were defeated,” he wrote of their eventual demise that season.

Jackson later guided the Los Angeles Lakers to two more NBA titles after basketball’s most imposing centre Shaquille O’Neill left. Granted, it took him five years.

Fiona Coghlan and Lynne Cantwell have retired. The quiet yet meticulous industry of this pair was the foundation on which the 2013 Grand Slam was built. Their leadership was also instrumental in Ireland outfoxing the Black Ferns last August.

But time moves on. So has the entire coaching structure. Down to the very last woman. One certainty, unmistakably, remains in place.

Jackson wrote: “If the players don’t have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won’t pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive.”

Sense of oneness

That is the legacy of Coghlan and Cantwell. Watching the team gather in Dublin Airport for Wednesday’s flight to Florence, that sense of oneness is clearly still ingrained.

“Before we punched above our weight,” said new captain Niamh Briggs, a nominee for world player of the year in 2014. “Now we are just trying to get a consistency that will take us to a new level. We have a squad that can do that.”

The spine of the world cup semi-finalists remains in place. Ailis Egan will lock the scrum, Sophie Spence and Marie Louise Reilly will keep the engine room humming, while Claire Molloy remains one of the best flankers in the world.

Jenny Murphy at outside centre should provide her more scope to carry ball and if Briggs kicks her goals, Ireland will be hard to beat.

"This is the start of the Six Nations but it's also the start of a three-year World Cup cycle," Briggs said. "So we need to give girls time to embed themselves and get used to the structures and the intensity of international rugby."

Ireland have a secret weapon thanks to wandering Kiwi ways. Sene Naoupu, wife of Connacht number eight George Naoupu, has qualified via residency. Injury keeps her benched this evening.

"She has all the skills, she really has, that bit of X factor," said new coach Tom Tierney. "Unfortunately she injured her shoulder in San Diego with the Sevens and is only coming back now. She has missed a bit of prep but still very promising playing at 10, 12 or 13. She looks to be a star in the making."

Expect a double injection of New Zealand excellence should halfback or centre demand it. The great Tania Rosser continues to defy her age to provide cover at scrumhalf. She also covers outhalf as her brilliant try at last year’s World Cup reminded us.

The adopted alternatives should guide Ireland out of trouble here and into the choppier waters that lie ahead.

France come calling in seven days followed by world champions England. The always welcoming rugby outpost of Ashbourne RFC provides the backdrop for these giants and not the Aviva Stadium.

Ireland might have to win another Grand Slam to be invited back to the big house. That’s a shame, and another opportunity missed in the promotion of women’s rugby.