Erin King is an impressive individual on and off the pitch. Ireland’s young captain produced a performance of substance in the 54-5 victory over Scotland, embellished by a try, and was equally captivating in her post-match observations. She is a good storyteller.
One of which involved a jersey presentation from the 1973 Ireland women’s team, “the originals” so to speak, who played the first international against Scotland, to their successors.
“They said to us that they felt like they were in awe and they were honoured to be in front of us,” King revealed. “We straight away said that it was an honour to have them there. All the hard work that they had to do. They didn’t have any support, and they just played rugby because they love it. I guess at the end of the day that’s why we do it and we never lose sight of that.
How Leinster and Ulster warmed up for their European showdowns
“That’s a big pillar of mine personally and something that I love to bring into the team; to enjoy it and play with smiles on faces. That’s why you start playing rugby, because you love the sport. We really had that in common which was really nice.
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“It was funny when the girls were presenting the jerseys. It was like mini-me’s. The secondrows were all tall and the scrumhalves were all short. That was funny, special. They have this big sense of pride watching us play which is nice. It was a really special day that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Ireland’s next on-pitch assignments will be in the Women’s XV global tournament next autumn in which they will play three matches at home and two in Cape Town. The identity of their opponents for that schedule of matches has yet to be confirmed.
Ireland head coach Scott Bemand was asked what he would take from a Six Nations campaign that yielded three home victories.
“We’ve always been quite open, and we want to keep the momentum going. We’ve been able to achieve that both on and off the pitch. We’ve got our three home wins, which we haven’t won three games in this competition for a good while. Even predating myself.
“So, we’re starting to convert some performances into wins. Results are massive. Results are everything in this game and we want to give people something to cheer. I think we’ve achieved that. Getting to play in a stadium such as the Aviva with 31,000 plus in, I think people leave here today having had something to cheer and feeling part of the [Green] wave.
“We’ve got to do our stuff and keep growing our stuff on the pitch. We’ve got to keep growing stuff off the pitch. Playing in front of 77,000 people at Twickenham, going to Clermont, which I’ve got to say was one of the best rugby experiences in a partisan away sense. And then we follow it up by having a crowd, a 16th player, if you will, here at the Aviva.
“We’re becoming so rich in terms of experiences that we’ve been through. Next one for us is to get out to those fast starts and keep them going longer in games. [I’d] probably argue this game [and] Italy were unbelievable performances but there’s more in them as well.
“So, we’ve got new caps, we’ve got people adding into the on-pitch stuff. We’re growing our wave. I leave here with a sense that there’s only more to come.”
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