It's getting real now.
The preparation, that started back in early June, is, for the most part, over.
Two warm-up games, containing good, bad and ugly, are out of the way and in four days’ time, Ireland will be back on the World Cup stage.
It’s been quite the journey.
The 2017 home World Cup that promised so much, delivered little; nothing on the pitch and nothing in terms of a positive lasting legacy.
Instead, the final play-off loss to Wales set Ireland on a qualifying path from which they could not find their way off; it culminated in a 2021 defeat to Scotland in Parma, that in turn preceded the players’ letter of discontent with the IRFU, two captains stepping away in their prime and a wooden spoon.
It seemed new rock bottoms were being found at every turn.
But then, an upturn. Scott Bemand took over in 2023 and a WXV3 title arrived soon after.
World Cup qualification and consecutive third-place finishes in the Six Nations were sealed, while Ireland recorded statement wins over Australia and New Zealand.
Expectations were raised, and then somewhat tempered by the injury absences of Erin King, Dorothy Wall, Christy Haney, and Aoife Wafer, who is set to miss the first two games at least.
The WXV successes took place away from the spotlight, in Dubai and Canada, while World Cup qualification was secured over a year ago.
But soon the attention of the country will be on the team when they take on Japan at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday at noon (live on RTÉ2).
"Having eyes on women’s rugby and our team is never going to be a bad thing because we want the Irish people behind us," full-back Stacey Flood tells RTÉ Sport from the team’s hotel, a stone's throw from the Silverstone racing circuit, in the UK Midlands.
"We want the support.
"If that’s us going out and putting in a good performance or not getting the performance we want, we still want support from back home.
"The green wave isn’t about whether you are doing poorly or good, there are going to be ebbs and flows.
"Not everything is going to be the best every time. It’s about getting eyes on women’s rugby 'cos this is going to be such a major pedestal for women’s rugby.
"I think this whole tournament is going to change the game.
"We want to sell out stadiums, we want great crowds, and we are not going to get that if we sit back and are afraid to put out the performance we want or afraid of what people will think of us.
"The fact that it’s on the same time zone, that we are a 45-minute flight away, if people get behind us, that’s exactly what we are looking for."
Ireland had to stew on a late disappointing defeat to Scotland at the tail end of the Six Nations, while there was a sense of getting dirty diesel out of the system in the warm-up win over Scotland and loss to Canada.
"You don’t want to go out the blocks too early in warm-up games, and be performing 10 out of 10," says the Dubliner.
"Hopefully that’s what those games are for, to learn what you need to do right and wrong, learn what you can do better.
"I feel like we got what we wanted out of them, found areas we need to improve on and we have been improving on them.
"We started slow in those games and that’s going to be a big focus this weekend.
"We didn’t get into the Irish way enough, like. We took 20 minutes to get into the games and that put us on the back foot.
"We were waiting for something to happen but we have to go out and make things happen."
Ireland have beaten Japan in six of their seven meetings, with the defeat coming in a tour match in 2022.
Ireland trained just outside Northampton, with Aoife Wafer not among the group. Scott Bemand's side open their #RWC2025 campaign against Japan on Sunday #RTERugby #RTESport pic.twitter.com/VgWR2lwkEZ
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 20, 2025
"They are so diligent and they might not be the biggest but they are so skillful," said Flood, who represented Ireland at the Paris Olympics in Sevens last year, of the first Pool C opponents.
"Their kicking and passing is on a tee. They are really good jackal threats.
"We know what they are good at but it’s about bringing it back to our squad and what we can do in a green jersey, and not playing up too much to the opposition.
"When you start changing for other people you go away from your own game. We’re happy with our game and we know we can get good bang for what we are good at."
While the focus is fully on Lesley McKenzie’s side, there’s been plenty of time for the squad to relax.
There’s been golf, a visit to Oxford, a visit to a guide dog centre, hurling puckabouts, Eve Higgins' TikTok lip-syncing, a card game that got out of hand, Beth Buttimer’s 20th birthday party, Niamh O’Dowd clocking up the biggest fines, and watching the sun set in the beautiful surroundings of the Whittlebury Park Hotel.
The mood is good, and when Flood is asked about the potential of the team, she lights up even more.
"Like Dannah [O’Brien], Dalto [Aoife Dalton], a lot of the girls are 20, 21, 22. I think there is no ceiling at the minute because their rugby-playing age is so old for how young they are and they are growing within the game," says the 29-year-old.
"Aoife Dalton is one of our best defenders, our best attackers and she still has so much time to grow in a high-performance environment.
"Having that age profile, this team is only going to build.
"A little bit of experience at the top and I feel like if we get the most out of each other the team will keep growing."
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Watch Ireland v Japan in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday from 11.30am on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ 2fm.
