England head coach Simon Middleton believes Ireland can bridge the gap between themselves and the top table of women's rugby if those in charge give it enough "backing".
Middleton, who will step down as coach of the World Cup runners-up following next week's Six Nations finale against France, says the improvement made by Wales in the last two seasons has shown how quickly progress can be made.
The defending champions moved one step close to retaining their Grand Slam title with a comprehensive 48-0 win against Ireland at Musgrave Park yesterday.
While they scored eight tries and conceded none in a comfortable victory, it was a stuttering performance, particularly in the second half where they went almost 30 minutes between their fifth and sixth tries.
Middleton admitted to some frustrations with the performance, but the England boss extended credit to the hosts for the aggressive nature of their defence.
"Ireland were never going to give us anything today," he said.
The 48-0 scoreline fell some way short of the record 89-0 result some thought would be surpassed given Ireland's poor start to the campaign, something Middleton says he never believed was realistic.
"We knew we weren't going to win like that. I'm really pleased, we scored 40-plus points and that's a good score. We'd have taken that, we'd have wanted a better, more consistent performance to get it. That [record] was never going to happen. These girls are too proud, too committed, too well organised and too well coached for that to have happened.
"They're incredibly proud, very tenacious, stayed in the fight all the way and were really energised by the crowd and they forced us into playing a game we didn't want to play. We didn't work it out quick enough. It's all about learning though."
The gulf between Ireland and England's respective professional programmes was topic of discussion leading up to the game, with Middleton saying the Six Nations as a competition needed more teams contending for the title, after recent seasons had become dominated by his side and France.
But speaking after the game, he said there's no reason why Ireland can't close the gap, even if it takes several years.
"Absolutely, it's all relevant to funding, growing the pool of players, and you can only do that over a period of time, these are only at the start of their journey.
"If you get enough backing, it will come. You can see the gains Wales have made with 18 months or two years on contracts, and you'll see it with these guys as well.
"We need to be patient, but at the same time impatient, because we want to push the game along quickly. There's a lot of great energy in the game, and goodwill in the game to take it forward. We'll get there," he added.
England will host France next week at Twickenham in front of crowd of over 50,000, ten times more than the 5,309 that witnessed Saturday's game at Musgrave Park.
But Middleton took time to praise the home support, who did their best to throw England off their stride.
"I just thought it was a partisan crowd, it was brilliant, the way they got behind Ireland, every half-break they got the roof nearly came off, which was great."
