This November marked a turning point for Ireland with Adam Griggs stepping away from his role as head coach and a number of experienced campaigners ending their international careers.
But with the year marked by missing out on next year's Women's Rugby World Cup and subsequent contention over comments by the Ireland's director of women's rugby Anthony Eddy, there has been soul searching in regards to how to prompt a rebuild.
Former Ireland 7s and 15s international Louise Galvin outlined the balance between urgency and patience at the heart of that reform process on RTÉ's Against The Head amid a backdrop of a changing calendar.
"There is a root and branch review but I do think we need to look at the structures that are there," she said, adding that a focus on building for the next World Cup cycle will be key for incoming head coach Greg McWilliams.
"What's very important is that we have this global calendar coming in 2023," Galvin continued, "We need to come in the top three in the forthcoming Six Nations to be in that top tier. And there is no promotion or relegation.
"So we're looking for patience in one way for Greg to help rebuild the squad, particularly when a lot of caps and a lot of experience have left with Ciara Griffin, who put in a fantastic performance to drag her team from 12-3 down to winning the last day against Japan, and the likes of Lindsay Peat and Claire Molloy as we already know have exited.
More of a development pathway, more emphasis on interprovincials and possible link up with third level institutions - @lougalvin4 on approaches needed that could grow the women's game in Ireland #rterugby #AgainstTheHead pic.twitter.com/EwlljB12oM
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) November 22, 2021
"So we need to give Greg time and patience but at the same time if we're looking at longevity we need to potentially be playing in that tier one of the global calendar or do we look at stationing ourselves in tier two and trying to expose players to rugby at that level and trying to build ourselves back up again?"
But the grassroots and bringing more potential international players through is the biggest concern according to Galvin.
"The main argument is that we need to get more of a development pathway," she said.
"We need to get more emphasis on our interpros by playing more of them or putting them in a window where we actually get our international players playing in interpros and playing club games. That's something that will bring up the standard of the AIL and that's where need to invest more of our resources."
Galvin added that aligning clubs with third level institutions could be one way to strengthen the player pathways and bolster the club game.
"(Third level institutions) already have the resources, the pitches. If they even have something like sports science degrees, that they can have students that can come in and give sports science programmes to some of the AIL clubs."
