This Women's Rugby World Cup has been all about more.
The expanded competition has more teams and games than ever before. Bigger stadiums have welcomed bigger crowds.
And perhaps the largest area of growth has been the number of women on the coaching teams.
Three years ago in New Zealand, 15% of the coaches were female, but that number has jumped up to 32% for the 2025 edition.
That increase can be attributed in many ways to the Gallagher High Performance Academy.
Established two years ago ahead of the inaugural WXV, the GHPA is part of World Rugby’s drive to elevate the prominence of women at the top levels of the game.
This year’s academy intake has 14 coaches scattered around the competition, including France’s joint-head coach Gaelle Mignot, and England’s defence coach Sarah Hunter.
Larissa Muldoon is Ireland’s academy representative.
The former Ireland scrum-half is in her second stint with Scott Bemand’s side as part of the programme.
In 2023, the retired 48-cap international was approached by IRFU’s head of women’s performance Gillian McDarby and then-senior coach John McKee about joining up with Bemand’s coaching group as an intern.
Muldoon was already on a branch of the coaching tree in Ireland as a national talent squad (NTS) coach at Connacht.
She spent that WXV3 in Dubai, and the 2024 Six Nations as a coaching intern, but has returned for this World Cup in a more hands-on capacity, fully part of Bemand’s coaching ticket, working with the head coach around Ireland’s attack and skills.
"I've definitely grown a lot," Muldoon (above) tells RTÉ Sport.
"It just gives you the experience and the opportunities to get inside the environments but also enhance your coaching skills by being part of it and actually owning a particular area."
The Donegal native wasn’t involved with Ireland for the WXV1 in Canada last year, having gone to New Zealand to work with Canterbury’s women’s team in the Farah Palmer Cup (FPC), and says getting experiences outside the bubble of Irish rugby was hugely valuable.
"I feel very grateful. Like I've gone from one competition to the next," she said.
"So I feel like going from different competitions, southern hemisphere, northern hemisphere, I've grown massively tactically, technically, but also off field, how you manage groups.
"The whole experience, just how they run the competition [was excellent]. And obviously, we had a lot of Polynesians and different cultures all coming into one.
"So how you bring people together, it was really interesting.
"They're massive in relation to the theming and cultural identity.
"So getting all the people on board, and then just how they run it; they're very much a game-based approach with a little bit of structure, more so now over the last few years.
"So their skill set is top-notch. And they just want to play. So it was great, I got to see a lot of New Zealand as well, because you're traveling every weekend to the North Island and the South as well.
"It was brilliant. It was honestly was probably the highlight outside of Ireland, obviously."
More than the rugby, the 12 weeks coaching in New Zealand opened her eyes to the player-management involved in the game, and the subtleties of interacting with players and digging into what makes them tick.
"Human behaviour is really interesting and different group dynamics is really interesting," she said.
"I definitely feel that as much as I've grown my rugby knowledge, how you manage people and how you bring people together is probably the biggest learning.
"Because you can have all the detail, but if people don't buy into you as a person, then it's not really worth it.
"I think the two biggest things for me is: it's okay to be vulnerable as a coach and to be your authentic self. Sometimes I think people put on masks of what people think you need to be.
"I think the more you're yourself and you're authentic, that your true nature will come out and people will buy into that.
"But secondly, just the transparency of communication, being extremely organised and being very transparent with your comms, both to management and players is massive.
"Coming back, I was definitely, definitely a lot more sure of myself and my capabilities, but also a different version of me on the field."
Coaching has been part of Muldoon’s pathway for a long time.
She studied sports development in Cardiff, and spent time during her playing career coaching in Wales, while she’s also coached at club level in Ireland with Dublin University and Railway Union, as well as spending time as a games promotion officer with Dublin GAA.
Getting a leg on the ladder can be difficult in such a competitive field, and this is where the GHPA has been most beneficial.
She said: "With those competitive fixtures comes opportunities for coaches to get their hand in the game. So, you know, the Celtic Challenge allows multiple coaches to come in.
"It's fantastic that we're getting players back from the game, but there are more opportunities for female coaches, whether it's the club game, whether it's Celtic Challlenge, Interpro and then Six Nations with these internships.
"It's fantastic because you need experience to go for roles.
"I can't go for a role anywhere else in the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere if I don't have experience.
"You can do all the coaching courses in the world, but when we talk about human behaviour and managing people, I can't really get that from looking on a slide.
"It's nothing against the courses of that, but it's lived experience like any role."
Muldoon doesn't know what the future holds beyond this World Cup. For now, her thoughts haven’t gone any further than France at Sandy Park.
Eleven years ago, she was part of an Irish squad that made it to the semi-finals of the tournament.
And although Ireland haven’t beaten France for eight years, she believes they will never be better prepared to do so.
"How the girls have conducted themselves this week, it's definitely the best I've ever seen this group prepare for an international fixture," she added.
"They're just on the ball, ready. I think it's the most we'll ever be ready to go against France.
World Cup knock-out rugby has not been a happy hunting ground for Ireland's women’s and men’s team – but France on Sunday provides the chance to change the script.
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"I believe there was probably still an element of fear within going against a French team [in previous years]. For us now, there's fuel.
"It definitely gives the fuel to the fire to go into this weekend with a knowledge in ourselves that we are capable and we can compete at this level.
"We obviously have a lot of experience playing them, but we're a very different team now."
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Watch Ireland v France in the Women's Rugby World Cup quarter-final on Sunday from 12.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio. All other quarter-finals on RTÉ Player
