Ireland defence coach Hugh Hogan believes his side will be more than a match for France when they meet in Saturday's Guinness Women’s Six Nations opener against France in Belfast.
A huge year for Irish women's rugby begins in earnest this weekend, as the countdown starts towards their World Cup opener against Japan on 24 August.
Having missed out on the 2022 tournament in New Zealand, Ireland secured qualification for the 2025 championship with a third-place finish in last year’s Six Nations, while they exceeded expectations at the WXV in Canada in the autumn, finishing runners-up in the tournament's top tier.
Those 2024 performances have raised expectations, both internally and externally heading into this Six Nations, starting with Saturday’s meeting with France.
When Ireland travelled to Le Mans to take on the French in last year’s opener, the goal was simply to "fire some shots", which they did despite a 38-17 defeat. Twelve months on, the target has changed.
"Our expectation is that we’ll challenge France," defence coach Hogan said.
"And like a high-quality Test match, it comes down to moments. There’s big moments in games and when you can win some of those moments you put them in the bank, if you lose some of them they may cost you or they may hurt you points.
"I think what we expect on the weekend is a strong challenge from France but we’ll go out to put out a strong Irish performance as well.
"I’d love to tell you, 'yeah, we’re definitely going to win’, but the reality is it's going to come down to moments.
"And if we can put more in the win column then we’ll be in a great shout of winning the game."
The confidence comes from continuity, particularly in the coaching group.
Hogan (above), who previously coached in the men’s game at Leinster and the Scarlets, replaced Declan Danaher as defence coach after the Six Nations, and the coaching ticket is unchanged from the promising WXV campaign, with Alex Codling (forwards), Denis Fogarty (scrum) and Gareth Steenson (kicking) supporting Bemand in 2025.
"There’s evolution and layers going in all the time. I think to challenge for a Six Nations tournament, you have to have a strong setpiece, your scrum and lineout, so we’ve doubled-down and we’ve gone after that.
"You’ve also got to have a strong defensive game, allied to your kicking strategy. I think that was a growth for us in Vancouver and it’s another aspect to the game that we’ve got to continue to drive.
"We also want to be ambitious in how we play the game. We’ve been developing different layers to our attack decision-making; when it might be on to move the ball, or keep the ball alive that we’ll try and go after those opportunities as well."
Hogan is also confident that the World Cup will serve as a motivation rather than a distraction, as competition for places intensifies over the coming weeks and months.
"That's probably in the telescope or long-distance view," he added.
"It's a really, really exciting year.
"From this week through to the end of the World Cup, we know that we have 10 Test matches that can potentially go out to 13 if you play the knockout games in the World Cup.
"For this group at the moment, the focus is on the now because it feels like quite a while since we played as a team.
"Most of our players have played in the Celtic Challenge, so they have had rugby together, they have had competitive training environments, but to put on an Ireland shirt is special and we haven't done that for a while. We're pretty excited to go out on Saturday and play France."
Follow a live blog on Ireland v France in the Women's Six Nations on Saturday from 1pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra with second half commentary also on RTÉ Radio 1 from 2pm
Watch Scotland v Wales in the Women’s Six Nations from 4.35pm on RTÉ Player
