“The last couple of years, I think we’ve only won two games in the Six Nations and it didn’t feel right.”
Denis Fogarty(Image: ©INPHO/Ben Brady)
Ireland kick-off their Women’s Six Nations campaign this Saturday afternoon against England at Twickenham.
The girls will rate as longshots to topple the world champions, the bar is high.
But assistant coach Denis Fogarty will be looking for the side to front up as the target is for three wins from the five games,
“There is one goal for us, making sure we win all our home games,” says Fogarty.
“The last couple of years, I think we’ve only won two games in the Six Nations and it didn’t feel right even speaking about that. We felt like we were better than that so definitely our home games, and we looked at these occasions.
“I think it’s really important that we make our mark in these games and not let the games go past us, even in the back end of the game. So we’ve spoken about that and, especially against England and France, we want to turn one of these teams over.
“That’s the mindset going into it and obviously the home games will be really, really important for us overall.
“It doesn’t come much tougher for Six Nations than England away.
“For sure, the occasion itself will be really big and obviously we’re very much aware of the challenge that England will give us, but I think we’ve prepped really well.
“The big thing for us going out there is making sure that we can impose our game on the occasion as well, but we expect a massive challenge.
Last season Ireland were poor in the scrum in this fixture.
“We’ve spoken about that. That area has probably lingered around for quite some time.
“It’s definitely hurt me and it’s hurt the players and we’ve spoken about it, but I think post that and even our prep for the World Cup and in the World Cup, we’ve kind of moved that forward and we knew we needed to.
“Especially this week, they’ve really gone after this area to make sure and we don’t let that happen again because it did have a big impact in the game. So they’ve prepped really well and we’re confident going into the game that we won’t make the same mistakes.”
Ireland, are in a sense, setting out again having completed the last World Cup cycle.
“It’s been good. We had that calibration camp a few months ago, which was good and we were kind of putting the pieces together.
“The first week here we were just getting more detail into our game and this week we’re just trying to intensify it and getting us match ready for Saturday.
“So it’s been very, very good. A lot of players have put up their hands, so it’s an exciting week for us.”