Former Ireland winger Alison Miller says she's excited to see the "evolution" of Scott Bemand's Ireland team, after an encouraging first outing in the Guinness Women's Six Nations.
While Ireland lost their sixth game in a row in the competition, the 21-point defeat to France on Saturday was closer than had been expected, with an aggressive Ireland defence proving a good match for last year's runners-up.
While Ireland's lineout consistently struggled, they mauled well when they had the chance, while their tacking stats were far improved on 12 months ago.
Hooker Neve Jones led the way with 23 tackles, with Brittany Hogan making 16 and Linda Djougang completing 14, while the team's missed tackle count of 17 was a marked improvement on the corresponding fixture 12 months ago, when they missed 43 tackles for an overall completion rate of just 76%.
"We saw, on Saturday, a really good defensive display," Miller said on RTÉ's Against the Head.
"There was a big hunger for this team to defend. I think they're trying to build the whole gameplan on having a solid defence. If you look at the results last year there were some big scores taken by all the teams against Ireland.
"I think they're enjoying defence, because you have to be able to do that at international level, and we saw some very offensive tackles, and a big comparison to last year when we saw a lot of reaching and a lot of misses.
"France never really looked like cutting us up, they had to really work for their tries, a very impressive defensive display, [defence coach] Declan Danaher has clearly done very good work to get those girls connected."
One notable change in trend was how Ireland finished Saturday's game in Le Mans.
In the 2023 campaign, Ireland struggled in the final quarter of games, with 28% of their points conceded across the competition coming in the last 10 minutes of matches, while on Saturday they won that period 14-7, with Aoife Wafer and Aoife Dalton both grabbing tries.
And with this group now a year further down the road in their professional development, Miller says there has been a noticeable change in their strength and conditioning.
"To me they really fronted up. The girls have put on a lot of size.
"Last year when I looked at them compared to other teams I thought they were very small, and lost that physical battle, where on Saturday they were physical, they seemed well connected, there was a real honesty in the group. They seem to enjoy playing with each other," she added.
While France were always expected to see off Ireland, this weekend will give us a better measure of where this Irish team are, as they welcome Italy to the RDS, with the Italians also coming into the game off the back of a defeat, losing 48-0 to England.
Ireland took a kick-heavy approach against France last week, and it meant they were unable to get star winger Beibhinn Parsons onto the ball as much as they would have liked, in order to threaten the French defence.
Miller believes Bemand's side should look at how the Irish men's team use their wingers for inspiration in maximising Parsons' impact on the game.
"The reality of the modern game, she [Beibhinn Parsons] is a marked women now. She made a name for herself very young and teams are going to try stop her, especially on the wing.
"I would like to see the wingers coming off their wing and running those ghost lines off nine or 10, running at a front-five forward. In the modern game you find your space better in those situations.
"On the wing, they're ready for Beibhinn Parsons, but where they won't be ready for her is when it's unexpected, in midfield running off the nine, 10 or 12. I'd love to see the two wingers evolve and I think they'll get opportunities in that. Sometimes the ball doesn't come your way and you have to go looking for it if you want to get involved in a game."
And Miller, who scored a record 24 tries in 47 caps for Ireland, says there is a "frightening" potential ahead of the Irish attack if they can get Parsons into the game more often.
"I think for a winger, the more you get the ball, the more you gain in confidence, and if you get the ball to Beibhinn more, she gets better and she beats a few defenders, she gets confident, and that's the winger mentality.
"You have to have the licence to try it and for it to maybe not work out, and work on it week to week. I'm looking forward to seeing where they can go with that because I think they'll be frightening when they do that."
Watch Ireland v Italy in the Women's Six Nations on Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
