6 Nations: Round 4 reaction

Ireland V Wales:

Published by Alison Donnelly, March 15, 2010

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6 Nations: Round 4 reaction

We are much fitter and more physical than we were in last year's Championship. We have increased the amount of strength and conditioning work we have done under Sami Dowling and now that it is bearing fruit.

"It has really come together and I think you saw that in the second half against Wales."

"The contests between Wales and ourselves are always tight and although we had not beaten them since 2005 the games have never had a lot of points in them. We are delighted to get the win and hopefully we can kick on against Scotland and really end our Championship on a high."

We were in control for the first 25 minutes of the first half but we then gave away a soft try before giving away a series of penalties late in the first half. We gave field possession away which handed momentum to them, he said.

In the second half Ireland came out and played a kicking game and pinned us back and we couldnt get out of our own 22. To be fair we defended really well but we fell off a couple of tackles out wide and you could see Ireland grow in confidence.

The bottom line is we werent good enough. We lost the contact area and lacked composure and we have to take a long look at ourselves. We arent doing the simple things well at the moment. We are not quite firing on all cylinders like we did last season.

We are an evolving squad, we have a lot of youngsters and they have a lot to learn. We have a lot of positives to take out of that, but England is a benchmark as to where you are. All credit to them, they played a great game. At the end of the day, they were fitter, faster, stronger and more clinical.

I am really pleased with this win. Scotland competed well for the whole 80 minutes but really our quality was telling in the end.

I changed our squad quite significantly for this game, and despite the changes, the players responded really well. They were full of belief and showed that we have a big squad full of quality players. Certainly all the players did their jobs today and that is going to make selection very difficult ahead of our game on Friday against France.

For the first time this year we have struggled more than expected and we paid for the 'absences of our captain Paola Zangirolami and kicker Valentina Schiavon. In the second half the girls tried to play and to some extent, we have managed to do that, scoring two tries the end. Now we go to Wales to try to close our 6 Nations in the best possible way.

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