Ireland flanker Brittany Hogan doesn't believe a potential wooden spoon for Ireland in the TikTok Women's Six Nations will lead to a player exodus.
A winless campaign on the pitch, and controversy off it, has led to a difficult championship for Ireland's squad, who are rebuilding after several high-profile retirements in 2021 and 2022.
Last week, assistant coach Niamh Briggs described how "draining" the media coverage of the Ireland women's programme had become, to the extent that she had taken a step back from social media.
Captain Nichola Fryday was also frustrated by the "outside noise" that followed them after their 24-7 defeat to Italy in Parma in Round 3.
Ireland performed better than expected in Saturday's defeat to England, in spite of the scoreline, with head coach Greg McWilliams saying he believed their third quarter performance in particular marked "a line in the sand" for his young side.
Last week's step forward could be followed by two back this weekend. Only a bonus-point win will realistically be enough for Ireland to stand a chance of avoiding the wooden spoon in the Six Nations.
Finishing bottom of the table would be a bitter pill to swallow at the best of times, but if ever there was a bad year to do so, this is it, with sixth place also sending McWilliams' side to the bottom tier of the new WXV tournament which starts later this year.
However, Hogan (below) doesn't believe this year's deflating campaign will see players walk away from the Women's XV programme.
"No, I wouldn't say anyone would be turned off," the flanker said, ahead of Saturday's meeting with Scotland in Edinburgh.
"Any time you get to wear the green jersey, it's always a privilege and we're so proud to wear it. We cherish every single minute that we’re in it.
"Stepping on the soil with the jersey on you kind of want those moments and you never really want to leave it.
"Obviously with our supporters at the weekend, we had 5000-plus people and half of them were under 18s that are actually there for the game. Just knowing that there’s that baseline and that foundation below us is really positive and you’re getting the messages after the game saying that you’re role models, like you’re really inspirational towards us. That spurs us on. We don’t need much more motivation than a green jersey to be honest."
Having scored just two tries and a total of 15 points in their opening four games, Ireland will need to double that try tally against the Scots, who produced their own best performance of the championship last weekend, defeating Italy 29-21.
While it looks a tough ask for Ireland's attack to suddenly burst into life after several fruitless outings, Hogan says they have to play themselves into the game rather than chasing tries from the off.
"We wouldn't be here if we weren't competitive. It’s international test rugby.
"We obviously want to be getting the 'W’s at the end of it, want to be getting the wins. But we can’t really be focusing on the win, we can’t be focusing on the result too much.
"From that starting whistle, we have to focus on our process and each ten minute block, each ten minute increment, making sure that we are intense in that and we work on next job, next job. We can’t be focusing on the result at the end of the day. But if we keep with our processes the results will come hopefully so," she added.
Full-back Lauren Delany says the signs are positive that Ireland's attack is ready to click.
The versatile Sale Sharks back points to the individual moments where they troubles Italy and England in recent weeks, even if they struggled to stitch those moments together.
"You just need to look back to the previous game against Italy and we created so many opportunities against them.
"England put up a decent fight. They've a phenomenal defensive line but we still were able to create some cracks in their armour. And Dannah's [O'Brien] kicking game was brilliant and put them on the backfoot a good bit.
"I think for us it’s just being that little bit more clinical with the ball, maybe keeping the possession a bit more, not kicking it away so that we can build phases and maybe isolate a few players more on the edge. I think we’ll probably take a lot of confidence from that Italian game and then hopefully build on it over the next week but I think we’re looking pretty confident going into the weekend."
And while they conceded three late tries in Saturday's 48-0 defeat to England, the 33-year-old says they've taken huge belief from their second half performance at Musgrave Park, where they held the defending champions scoreless from the restart until the 70th minute.
"We have to take confidence from that, to hold that kind of a world class team to nil for 30 minutes in that second half. You can't but be proud of that.
"A bit unfortunate that last few tries, and maybe showed a bit of fatigue at the end, but overall we have to be really positive and have to be happy with the performance on the whole."
Listen to live commentary of Scotland v Ireland (Saturday, 7.30pm) in the TikTok Women's Six Nations on RTÉ Radio 1, or watch England v France (1pm) and Italy v Wales (3.30pm) on RTÉ Player.
Watch Leinster v Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final live on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport and listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
