Scott Bemand says he's unclear right now that involvement Johnny Sexton will have with his Ireland women's squad ahead of the Rugby World Cup this summer.
The IRFU confirmed yesterday that the former Ireland men's captain would become a full-time coach from August following his involvement with the British and Irish Lions in Australia.
In announcing Sexton, the IRFU also said the 39-yeear-old would work with age-grade teams up to senior level in both the men's and women's programme, opening the door for him to work with the women's team ahead of the World Cup in England, which gets under way in late August.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Bemand said it's too early to know the extent of Sexton's involvement with the team in the weeks leading up to the tournament, although he stressed their current kicking coach Gareth Steenson will remain in place.
"He's got a couple of things that he’s going to be doing first in terms of other environments," Bemand said, when asked about Sexton.
"Currently we use Gareth Steenson doing the kicking with us and that will continue through to the World Cup. We’ll have touch points, it will be a collaborative effort.
"There's obviously a good number of pathway people coming through and utilising somebody like Johnny and Steenson’s skills within the pathway group, but Steenson will continue to do the kicking stuff with us through to the World Cup."
Ireland's World Cup plans were dealt a huge blow this week, with confirmation that flanker Erin King (above) will miss the tournament due to a serious knee injury.
The 21-year-old damaged cartilage in her knee and underwent surgery this week, ruling her out for the remainder of the Six Nations, as well as the World Cup.
And Bemand says while he and the team are "gutted" for the World Breakthrough Player of the Year, they will be hugely motivated to produce a win for King when they take on Wales in Newport on Sunday.
"The group are close, and stuff like that does affect you, but there's also a growing piece here with the group that we understand that injuries can happen.
"I’ve got to say, they’ve still come around her really well. Erin doesn’t want us moping. Erin wants us to go out and put out a performance this week.
"We’ll take a bit of Erin energy and we’ll bring it into training this week and we’ll take it to Wales with us, because she’s still part of the group, she’s still around and she would want nothing more than for us to go and put out a good win in Wales.
"We've got a few options [in the back row] that we can look at. Obviously what she brings is fairly unique. It’s sort of the innovation of the single-player lifts and the front of the lineouts, and her ability to read games, line-break, make defensive impacts both in the tackle and pinching the ball back has been brilliant.
"But we can’t just be reliant on one player. We got to keep growing the depth, there’s girls coming through. Tricky [Edel McMahon], is back on line this week. We’ve got players in the background, Claire Boles has been outstanding through the camp and brings with her her own unique brand of openside flanker."
Ireland head into the final two games of the Guinness Women's Six Nations targeting two wins against Wales and Scotland, which would be enough for a third-place finish for the second year in a row.
Last week's 49-5 defeat to England was a frustrating scoreline for Bemand's side to accept, given they had held England scoreless for close to 35 minutes and trailed just 7-5 at half time before giving up six tries after the break.
But on reflection, the Ireland coach says they have been looking at where their first half performance should have been better, rather than the one-sided second half.
"Do you know what? We looked at the game. It felt like the game got away from us in the first half," he added.
"The second half is obvious. It's obvious when we're behind and the wheels come off it. It's the first half that we put ourselves in the position for the second half.
"If we want to compete with World Cup contenders and go deep into games, and want to cause more problems, we looked at how that game could have been 15 or 17-0 at half time.
"We've gone pretty hard at the first half. If we get that right and we're 15 or 17-0 up at half time, what does that team talk look like at half time for the other changing room? What does the game feel like when you come out after that?
"There's bits of learning, not just from the end. I accept that's clear and obvious, but around bits that we could have had more scoreboard in that first block."
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