{"id":407909,"date":"2026-04-20T08:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407909\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:03:10","slug":"ireland-head-to-france-ready-to-put-world-cup-lessons-into-action-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407909\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland head to France ready to put World Cup lessons into action \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland head to Clermont <\/a>for next Saturday\u2019s defining Women\u2019s Six Nations third-round match buoyed by their win in front of a record home crowd at the Dexcom Stadium<\/a> and believing they can claim a first win away to France.<\/p>\n

The French enjoyed a 38-7 victory over Wales in Cardiff, pulling clear in the second half as they had done against Italy<\/a> a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you see the half-time scores last week and today?\u201d said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand of France looking ahead to next Saturday\u2019s game in the Stade Macel Michelin (8.10pm Irish time).<\/p>\n

\"\"URC preview, women\u2019s Six Nations and Munster\u2019s controversial new appointment<\/p>\n

France and Wales were level on seven points apiece at half-time at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday and led Italy 5-0 for the break on the opening weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, that could mean a couple of things: slow starters, loaded bench. But what we know are the things we took from the quarter-final,\u201d Bemand added, referencing Ireland\u2019s 18-13 World Cup last-eight defeat to France last September. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe game that could have, should have, would have. Played again, if we play that 10 times, eight of them probably fall your way. So, we know we\u2019ve closed the gap. We\u2019re confident we can grow in our ability to fire shots on such occasions. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut call it as it is, going over to France is one of the ultimate tests. It\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 now.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Erin King happy with Ireland\u2019s quick start against ItalyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

All things considered, Bemand still believes it will be a close encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now starting to talk about margins and not about occasions and coping. We\u2019ve got to go over there and take our best game with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs 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. 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

Meanwhile, the top three in the URC before the 15th round all emerged pointless, whereas the next half dozen all had bonus-point wins, meaning just four points separate fourth to ninth.<\/p>\n

Ninth-place Connacht had one of their greatest results, a first win over the Stormers in Cape Town, but remain a point outside the top eight after those above them claimed similar wins, including Munster, whose win over Benetton arrested their slide. <\/p>\n

Leinster were the round\u2019s big movers, moving above Ulster into third with Friday\u2019s 29-21 win in Belfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in Croke Park after round four,\u201d recalled Leo Cullen after Leinster lost three of their opening four games. \u201cIf you offered us where we are at the moment, we\u2019d probably have taken it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t matter. You can see teams get a little bit excited and a bit giddy this time of year and you have one bad performance and it all comes crashing down around you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland head to Clermont for next Saturday\u2019s defining Women\u2019s Six Nations third-round match buoyed by their win in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28454,61,60,1254,11287,28577,11897,2447,112,14881,123979],"class_list":{"0":"post-407909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-connacht-rugby","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-ireland-womens-rugby","12":"tag-leinster-rugby","13":"tag-leo-cullen","14":"tag-munster-rugby","15":"tag-scott-bemand","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-rugby-championship","18":"tag-women-s-six-nations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407909","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=407909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}