{"id":405719,"date":"2026-04-18T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/405719\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T21:52:10","slug":"erin-king-happy-with-irelands-quick-start-against-italy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/405719\/","title":{"rendered":"Erin King happy with Ireland\u2019s quick start against Italy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland<\/a> head coach Scott Bemand<\/a> could scarcely conceal his delight with his side\u2019s second-round win over Italy at a packed Dexcom Stadium in Galway. <\/p>\n

Ireland had started at a blistering pace, scoring seven of their nine tries by the interval to lead 45-10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that without getting carried away on one result, 45 points up at half time is a significant first half, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a significant difference,\u201d said Bemand.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Nine-try Ireland cut loose to win maiden Six Nations clash in GalwayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThose that know the Dexcom in Galway, it\u2019s always going to be tougher into a breeze than with it, but I thought we capitalised, and most importantly, kept the momentum going in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, we said we didn\u2019t fire enough shots, we didn\u2019t get our game going, and quite simply that\u2019s down to a little bit of accuracy and potentially even some physicality, so we went after that this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland had their bonus point by the 23rd minute, the quick start being part of Ireland\u2019s plan from the get-go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose after last week there might have been some frustrations within the squad about how we started against England, so we probably placed a bit of an emphasis on that fast start,\u201d said Erin King, after securing the first win of her captaincy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what this squad is capable of and we really showed it in that first half. We came out the blocks firing and, yeah, I\u2019m just really proud of the girls for that start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, Galway-born B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons was named player of the match, competing her hat-trick on half-time with the pick of Ireland\u2019s nine tries in finishing off some superb interplay between Emily Lane, Dannah O\u2019Brien, Stacy Flood, try-scoring debutant Robyn O\u2019Connor and the outstanding Aoife Wafer.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Aoife Wafer celebrates with Robyn O\u2019Connor after the match. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI never underestimate a good old mauling try as well,\u201d said Bemand when asked if that had been the pick of the nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good try. But look, as we develop depth in positions across the board, the ability to be able to hit and go, or the ability to pull the trigger on the edge, we\u2019re developing more capability.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a good chance, and if you look across the board today there\u2019s been some good tries. Although, the one after half-time is really important because you go 45 points up and you come out and you\u2019re looking for a reaction even when you\u2019re that sort of dominant on the scoreboard, and that was a really important piece for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like any tries, and even better when they get converted, and I thought that some of the conversions they were pretty outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week after being heavily marked by England, on any other day Wafer would have been chosen as the player of the match after a typical tour de force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you guys asked the question around Aoife last week and we just said look, sometimes you can have a quieter day game or more difficult game to get into,\u201d said Bemand.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe made damn certain she got into the game today, carrying off the scrum, couple of tackles, I think she had two massive tackles and a dominant carry for scrum in the first 20 minutes and suddenly she\u2019s in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have loved to have left her out there. She got a little bit of cramp,\u201d he explained of Wafer\u2019s 53rd-minute replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re up on the scoreboard, we\u2019re going to France next week, it\u2019s only game two in the competition. It\u2019s important to look after your players. No doubt she\u2019ll be disappointed to come off when she did, but she\u2019s fine. She\u2019ll go again this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons celebrates scoring her third try. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s first ever Six Nations game in Galway drew a crowd of 9,306, a home game record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that a little bit more playing in front of your home crowd,\u201d said King. \u201cEvery game for us is just as important as the next, but I guess I\u2019d be lying if I said it isn\u2019t special getting to play in front of all our family and friends and to have a record-breaking crowd just shows that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur green wave is getting bigger and that\u2019s so important to us, and it\u2019s why we play at the end of the day, is to inspire that next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to see all the young girls coming out that play is one of the most important things to our squad. So yeah, it probably does mean that a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland next face the World Cup quarter-final conquerors France, who have 10 points from the opening two rounds after bonus-point wins over Italy and Wales, in Clermont next Saturday (kick-off 8.10pm Irish time).<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose for us, it\u2019s really one job at a time,\u201d said King. \u201cOur focus after the England week was the Italy week, and now I guess our focus changes to that France week. I guess we do kind of owe them one, and I think we are raring to go against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, it was brilliant to get that confidence and show what the squad is capable of and just keep building on the performances that we\u2019re putting in and then go into training. There\u2019s probably a few fixes that we can take from today, a few learnings, and just keep improving at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main focus is ourselves, and if we can keep improving in our squad, we\u2019re happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Find the channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland head coach Scott Bemand could scarcely conceal his delight with his side\u2019s second-round win over Italy at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1254,43,2447,123979],"class_list":["post-405719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-womens-rugby","tag-news","tag-scott-bemand","tag-women-s-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}