Scrum Queens' emphatic display delights Doyle
Ireland women’s rugby coach Philip Doyle was beaming after his side’s 59 - 0 victory over Scotland last night.
Eleven tries for the defending grand slam champions told the story of an emphatic display by the home side in Ashbourne.
“It was an absolutely brilliant start” said Doyle. “We really targeted getting a good performance against Scotland and we delivered.”
It took Ireland just three and a half minutes to get on the score board when flanker Siobhan Fleming set up Sophie Spence for the opening try.
The hosts reached double figures after just 10 minutes with Nora Staleton converting Alison Miller’s first of two tries.
“I didn’t ask the team to put scores on the board early on.” Admitted Doyle. “We had our target areas and Scotland couldn’t cope. We hit our targets and that’s the sign of a good team.”
Doyle revealed that captain Fiona Coghlan had emphasised a commanding victory was important in this season's women’s six nations opener.
“Fiona told the girls that our last three performances against Scotland have been below par, even though we have won them," Doyle said, Ireland having won the 2013 encounter by 33 points to three.
“We were a bit worried and cautious as we haven’t played that well against Scotland the last two times,” added Coghlan.
“It’s important we don’t get ahead of ourselves” the captain admitted. “Scotland are a team in transition.
"We have Wales next week and they will be a very different opposition.
“The victory was fantastic, I don’t want to under play it, it keeps our momentum going from last year and it’s a great start, but we can’t run away with ourselves."
Although Ireland were dominant over the opening two quarters of the game, coach Doyle was happy with the performance of the replacements he introduced.
“We emptied the bench second half and Scotland got the upper hand," he said.
“I’m always happy with zero, any defensive coach would be,” Doyle smiled as Niamh Briggs, a second half replacement, denied Scottish winger Megan Gaffney getting the visitors on the scoreboard.
“We showed fantastic character to get out of own 22 and clear our lines,” Doyle said of his side’s second-half performance, having used all eight replacements.
“I emptied the bench and we even got the last try of the game. I’m delighted for a team that finished so well.”
