GREEN WAVE – Irish stars ready for Six Nations

With a massive Twickenham tie upon us, Gethin Thurlow gathers valuable insight from Ireland’s Dorothy Wall and Niamh O’Dowd as they look to upset the crowd.

Having finished third in the last two Six Nations, Ireland have established themselves as that best of the rest behind England and France. This time around, led by new captain Erin King (above, centre, with Ireland head coach Scott Bemand)they will be hoping to close that gap.

A tight quarter final loss to France in the World Cup would signify that they’re making progress in that direction, as is the performance from some of their stars in the PWR. Aoife Wafer has been ripping things up for Harlequins as always, Brittany Hogan joined Sale in January and has been a big part in their recent five-game winning streak, while young star Niamh Gallagher has stood out for Trailfinders.

Our two interviewees are prop Niamh O’Dowd (above right), who starts Saturday’s game on the bench, and flanker Dorothy Wall (above left), in the Ireland starting XV. They are both familiar with the PWR, playing for rival West Country sides Gloucester Hartpury and Exeter Chiefs in the competition this season.

As is clear from these interviews as well as the other ones we’ve conducted, the Six Nations is as big as it gets for these players, so they’ll be relishing the opportunity to represent Ireland in it this year, especially the big games at Twickenham and the Aviva.

First up, Dorothy Wall…

I wonder what the Six Nations means to you and what you look forward to in a competition like this.

Dorothy Wall: It means everything, really. It’s where I started my rugby, I started in a Sevens programme and then I moved to 15s in 2019 and I got my first cap in the 2020 Six Nations, and every Six Nations brings something different. It’s very exhilarating.

You don’t know if it’s going to be a brilliant tournament for you. Is it going to test your resilience? You know, I started as a very naive back row and now I’m a second row and just the involvement through the Six Nations is probably a real marker of the beginning of my career to what I’ve learned, injuries, this, that, the other. So it’s always a really exciting time of year for me personally.

I think post-World Cup, our Irish team has a bit to prove. I think we’ve left a few games, especially against France behind us.

There’s some big fixtures. We play England at Twickenham. I think there’s 70,000 tickets sold. We play in the Aviva, which is our home stadium in Ireland for the first time ever as a women’s team. So, there’s progressive steps happening every year and we just want our performances to count towards that as well.

Is there something different about when you play at Twickenham or back at the Aviva, about how it makes you feel playing?

Well, when you get on the pitch and you’re playing England or you’re playing whoever It doesn’t matter where you are, you’re like, it’s the pride of your country, it’s the people around you, it’s your family, it’s your DNA, it’s everything you’re made for is to play for Ireland and to go out against these other countries.

It’s a very exciting competition and certainly for Irish people gets us up for any of those games. I think it’s a great step for women’s rugby and Irish rugby in Ireland that we’re playing in the Aviva now.

I think probably two years ago, we played in Twickenham against England and got absolutely hammered. And on reflection in that game, we weren’t as good as them, but we also probably were a bit awestruck by the occasion, and the fans and just how much like bells and whistles there was around the whole thing.

We had 19-year-olds that had just come from club rugby and were starting on the wing and it was, yeah, I think a lot of our younger players, even younger squad at that stage were probably a bit overawed by the occasion.

So having those experiences, having a World Cup, I think that sense of awe diminishes and you’re actually where you’re meant to be.

Next, it’s Niamh O’Dowd…

What does the Six Nations mean to you?

Niamh O’Dowd: Honestly, it’s the highlight of my year. You spend your whole year building up to it. Yeah, it’s really what you’re working towards all season. 

I just can’t wait to get back into camp to see everyone. Definitely, now, having been away from home and away from the centralised group, it makes me want to be back more.

When we were back briefly in January, it was just really fun to get back with all the girls and see everyone and everything. 

Which opponents do you most like look forward to coming up against? 

I always like the Scotland game, we have them last so that’s always a good game and it’s really anyone’s game at the end of the day, it is always really close and it’s always a really good game. So that’s always an enjoyable one. 

And obviously we have England first up, which will be a really good challenge. And you really have to put your best foot forward from the off. 

There’s no warming up into it when you have England first. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to that as well. 

What are Ireland’s chances this year?

To be honest I wouldn’t read too much into what I predict in terms of results and stuff like that, but as long as we can keep building on our performances from the World Cup. 

We had some, I think, really big improvements in the last year and we’re delighted now to have a couple of players back in the squad from injury and stuff like that. So yeah, as long as we can just keep improving our performance, I’d be happy with that and then the results will sort themselves out.

Are you looking forward to playing in the big stadiums? 

Yeah, I can’t wait. It’ll be our first time playing in the Aviva so that and again, that’s the Scotland game so that’s gonna be a really big thing for us. 

Then you obviously have England at Twickenham first up as well and France away is always a really exciting one. The French crowds always bring the atmosphere. So yeah I can’t wait. I just love Six Nations so much. It’s such a buzz. 

How would you describe Ireland’s progress since the last six nations? 

I think being together for so long in pre-season before the World Cup and going through the experiences we did during the World Cup, I think we’ve grown as a squad and not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well. Our connections as a group.

So I think that will really help us, and I’m really excited to see how it all comes together now over the next few months. Yeah, I think we’re on a really good trajectory.

Photos: Six Nations, Helen M Jerome