Head coach Scott Bemand praised his team's ruthless streak as they picked up their first win in this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations championship.
Ireland thrashed Italy 57-20 in front of more than 9,000 supporters at Dexcom Stadium in Galway, as they produced an emphatic response to last week’s frustrating performance away to England.
Having been slow to get out of the traps at Twickenham a week ago, Ireland needed just four minutes to score their first try this evening through Emily Lane, and they kept their foot on the pedal to score seven of their nine tries before half time, pulling 45-10 clear by the break.
"I think that without getting carried away on one result, 45 points up at half-time is a significant first half, isn't it? And it's a significant difference," Bemand said after his team’s 57-20 win.in over
"Those that know the Dexcom in Galway, it's always going to be tougher into a breeze than with it, but I thought we capitalised and most importantly, kept the momentum going in the first half."
The Irish attack had come in for particular criticism after several sloppy handling errors in last week’s defeat to Twickenham, but that area of their game was unrecognisable in Galway this week, with just five handling errors in total, and only one in the opening half.
"Last week, we said we didn't fire enough shots, we didn't get our game going, and quite simply that's down to a little bit of accuracy and potentially even some physicality.
"So we went after that this week and we definitely got transfer from Wednesday's training session into the game today," he added.
While the second half was a much more even affair, Ireland had the game won by half time, as they locked in a bonus-point within 23 minutes.
And captain Erin King admits that opening quarter had been a key focus in their preparation.
"I suppose after last week there might have been some frustrations within the squad about how we started against England, so we probably placed a bit of an emphasis on that fast start," the 22-year-old (below) said.
"We know what this squad is capable of and we really showed it in that first half. We came out the blocks firing and, yeah, just really proud of the girls for that start.
"And today it was brilliant to get that confidence and show what the squad is capable of and just keep building on the performances that we're putting in.
"There's probably a few fixes that we can take from today, a few learnings, and yeah, just keep improving at the end of the day.
"The main focus is ourselves, and if we can keep improving in our squad, we're happy."
Beibhinn Parsons was Player of the Match as she scorched in for a first half hat-trick on her Galway homecoming, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that Aoife Wafer had the greatest influence on the victory.
The Harlequins number 8 only needed to play 54 minutes before departing with the result sewn up, after an all-action performance.
Wafer scored a try and had a significant role to play in all of Ireland’s first half scores, with a phenomenal 88 metres from 13 carries, and logging 11 tackles.
The 23-year-old had been unusually quiet in last week’s defeat to England, but looked back to her very best this evening.
"I think you guys asked the question around Aoife last week, and we just said, 'look, sometimes you can have a quieter day or a more difficult game to get into’.
"She made damn certain she got into the game today, carrying off the scrum, a couple of tackles. I think she had two massive tackles and a dominant carry from a scrum in the first 20 minutes, and suddenly she's in the game.
"Look, we'd have loved to have left her out there. She got a little bit of cramp. We're up on the scoreboard, we're going to France next week, it’s only game two in the competition. It’s important to look after your players.
"So, no doubt she'll be disappointed to come off when she did but she's fine. She’ll go again this week."
