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\n France’s Axelle Berthoumieu bites Aofe Wafer. Ben Brady \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
IRELAND\u2019S WORLD CUP quarter-final loss to France last September hurt Aoife Wafer more than most.<\/p>\n
Not only did she have to deal with the pain of the agonising 18-13 outcome, but the Wexford native was also bitten on the arm during the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Axelle Berthoumieu faced no sanction at the time but was later banned for the offence. It wasn\u2019t of any use to Ireland at that stage.<\/p>\n
Wafer also broke her collarbone and tore the medial collateral ligament in her knee in that quarter-final. Remarkably, she actually managed to finish out the entire game for Ireland.<\/p>\n
And remember that she had also made a swift recovery from knee surgery just to get back for Ireland\u2019s quarter-final. She hadn\u2019t played in the World Cup up until that knock-out tie.<\/p>\n
All of this is to say that this Saturday\u2019s Six Nations clash between Ireland and France at the Stade Marcel-Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, their first meeting since the World Cup, should bring plenty of meaning for Wafer.<\/p>\n
Not that she would mention any of these things herself. Wafer is too classy for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be, to be fair,\u201d said Wafer when asked if there will be plenty of motivation for Ireland when they think back to the World Cup quarter-final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat game hurt. For me personally, it still hurts. But that\u2019s not the be-all and end-all of why we want to win the game as well. We\u2019ve spoken a lot about breaking into that top two [of the Six Nations] and beating tier one nations.<\/p>\n
\n France’s Axelle Berthoumieu bites Aofe Wafer. Ben Brady \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Ben Brady \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke about it as a group all week in terms of we can\u2019t just keep talking, we have to actually do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland captain Erin King repeated that message when she spoke after their impressive nine-try win over Italy last Saturday in Galway.<\/p>\n
She is highly motivated for the clash with France, but also the chance to show Ireland can compete at the top table.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I think we\u2019d be lying if we said it wasn\u2019t a bit of a revenge game,\u201d said King.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re that little bit more eager because of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose we showed in that game what we\u2019re capable of and that we are able to compete with the top four in the world and\u00a0break into that top two of the Six Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019d be great to do it and put our talk into action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thrilling nature of Ireland\u2019s performance against the Italians, especially their seven-try first-half effort, was an ideal confidence boost ahead of the trip to France.<\/p>\n
Ireland had been frustrated with their inability to fire shots on the opening weekend as England beat, but the performance against Italy was clinical and exciting.<\/p>\n
Now, they look to notch their first win over France since 2017.<\/p>\n
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\n Fiona Tuite and Stacey Flood after last year’s loss. Dan Sheridan \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Dan Sheridan \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019ve closed the gap,\u201d said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand. \u201cWe\u2019re confident in our ability, we\u2019re growing our ability to get to fire shots in such occasions. But going over to France, call it as it is, going over to France is one of the ultimate tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an incredible place. People that have been to Clermont know it\u2019s not a hostile environment, but the stands are steep, people are on top of you, people are going to have flags, there\u2019s going to be a band. It\u2019s the next layer for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we go there and if we\u2019re in a position to win it, we know it\u2019s going to be a tight game. If we go there and France come out on top, we know it\u2019s going to be a tight game. So, we\u2019re now starting to talk about margins and not about occasions and coping.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019ve got to go over there and we\u2019ve got to take our best game with us. We\u2019ve got to train for that this week, but we\u2019re developing a group that becomes more experienced as we go.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, is it this year? Could be. Why not? We get our best game out there and we believe we\u2019ve got the characters and the firepower in the group to do that. And if it\u2019s not this time, then we\u2019ll go after it again next year, but we\u2019re definitely closing the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRELAND\u2019S WORLD CUP quarter-final loss to France last September hurt Aoife Wafer more than most. Not only did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15964,61,60,102,43,179337,15551],"class_list":{"0":"post-407803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-aoife-wafer","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-italy","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-once-bitten","14":"tag-six-nations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407803","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=407803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}