Niamh O'Dowd says Ireland will be grateful for their extra day of rest after a bruising Guinness Women’s Six Nations opener against France last Saturday.
Scott Bemand’s side were beaten 27-15 in their championship opener in Belfast, as attention now turns towards Sunday’s meeting with Italy in Parma (3pm).
The Italians had a game of two halves against England in their first Six Nations outing, losing 38-5 in York on Sunday, conceding two tries in the opening six minutes and falling 33-5 down at half time, but also holding the defending champions scoreless for most of the second half before a late try for Emma Sing.
Bemand will name his side for Sunday’s game in Parma on Friday afternoon, with the eight-day turnaround affording them an extra day to prepare, as they go in search of their first away Six Nations win since 2021.
"The eight days will definitely help but then I think it is six days then after that so I guess it will all balance out," loosehead prop Niamh O’Dowd said. "I guess it's just an extra day to recover."
That extra day will be of use for O’Dowd as much as any other player.
While Ireland have built considerable depth in some positions in recent seasons, they remain heavily reliant on their starting props.
On Saturday, both O’Dowd (below) and tighthead Linda Djougang played 77 minutes each against France, only departing when the result was beyond reach and France had gone 12 points up.
She said: "We both focus on our fitness quite a lot. So if games are coming down to the wire, we know that we have that many minutes in the bank.
"We knew it would be tough. Their scrum is very strong. They’ve big ball carriers.
"They’re obviously a bigger pack than we are so we knew that we were going to have to front up physically, which I think we did for the main part in that game. It was a very physical game."
Saturday’s game was a 12th cap for the Wexford native, who made her debut in the 2023 Six Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff.
After appearing mainly off the bench in her early caps, the 24-year-old established herself as first choice loosehead during last year’s WWXV in Canada, which in turn allowed Djougang switch back to her preferred role in the tight side.
"It was obviously a very tough transition at the start and I am a bit smaller than most of them [other props]," she said.
"But I guess I’ve just tried to work on my technique and if I can get my technique right then I can try and outweigh the physics that are against me at times.
"I just try and work on my technique and then use it to my advantage. It can make it easier for me to play longer minutes.
"I put a lot of that down to how the girls back me.
"They let me play my game and then as well some of the coaching staff, like last year we had Dec Danaher and this year Hugh Hogan, Alex Codling, the knowledge they’ve imparted to us and how they’ve driven – not just me – but the whole pack, how they’ve upped our standards, I kind of put a lot it down to them.
"We spend a lot of time - especially on the lineout - we spend a lot of time with Codders [Codling]. He’s been great.
"His level of detail, we’ve never experienced that level of detail. He also puts a lot of trust in us to get to that level. He backs us all the way. We’ve just put a lot of work into it every week and getting it all right."
While Ireland lost by 12 to France last weekend, there was a real sense of frustration at how the game turned out, with Bemand's side having got back to within two points of the visitors with less than 10 minutes to play, before giving up a penalty and a try.
However, O’Dowd says the positives far outweigh the negatives, which they will look to turn around this weekend in Parma.
"I think our defence was pretty solid throughout, setpiece was good," she said.
"I guess just execution let us down at times, a few handling errors, stuff like that.
"It was probably just forced a few passes and offloads maybe. I wouldn’t say it was nerves. We’d be generally quite composed. Yeah, probably just forced a few things early on.
"We obviously didn’t get the result but at the same time we know looking into the bigger picture when we meet them, if we meet them [France] in a World Cup we know that it's anyone’s game.
"It’s definitely there for the taking. We’ll take a lot of confidence from that."
Follow a live blog on Italy v Ireland in the Women's Six Nations on Sunday from 3pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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