Ireland’s brilliant bonus point victory at Dexcom Stadium was a fitting way to mark the first ever Guinness Women’s Six Nations match to take place in Galway, and also to thank the 9,206 fans who made it a record crowd for a standalone Ireland Women’s home international.
It is the most points and tries Ireland have scored in a Women’s Six Nations game since touching down eleven times against Scotland to clinch the 2015 title with a 73-3 triumph in Cumbernauld.
The current crop’s nine-try haul at the home of Connacht Rugby included a first-half hat-trick from player-of-the-match Béibhinn Parsons, a sixth-minute opener from Emily Lane and a score on her debut for Robyn O’Connor, and four others shared between forwards Aoife Wafer, Ellena Perry, Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald, and Brittany Hogan.
Asked about how strongly they started compared to last week’s defeat away to England, Bemand said: “Yeah, 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 is a significant difference.
“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.
“Last week, we said we didn’t fire enough shots, we didn’t get our game going, And quite simply that is 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.”
The first half statistics bear that out, with Ireland scoring an average of 5.6 points from eight attacking 22-metre entries as they built a 45-10 half-time lead. They had 53% possession and 62% territory, but most significantly, made 307.8 metres from 66 ball carries, beating eight defenders in the process.
Having had a relatively quiet outing at Twickenham by her own high standards, Wafer was in the thick of the action against Italy during her 53 minutes on the pitch. Along with her try, she was Ireland’s top carrier with 14 – and almost 50 post-contact metres – and provided the assist for Parsons’ third touchdown.
The Wexford woman, last year’s Player of the Championship, was tough for the visitors to handle in terms of her carrying off the back of scrums. She made a strong impact in defence too, landing all nine of her tackles, including two dominant hits, and picking up a turnover.
Praising the number 8 for her contribution, Bemand commented: “I think you guys asked the question around Aoife last week and we just said, ‘Look, sometimes you can have a quieter day game or 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.”
When Parsons completed her hat-trick on the stroke of half-time, it came from a fantastic free-flowing attack down the Clan Stand side of the ground. It is being talked about as a Try of the Championship contender such was the sharpness of the interplay and how it opened up Italy out wide.
Stacey Flood’s skip pass released O’Connor past halfway, the 20-year-old winger then offloaded out of a tackle to Parsons, before a quick transfer from Flood to Wafer. The back rower broke into the Italian 22, tying up two defenders and getting the ball free for Parsons to finish from 15 metres out.
When asked if it was one of the best tries of his coaching tenure, Bemand declined to offer a ranking. Instead he was keen to talk about the effectiveness of Ireland’s mauling and carrying, and how important Moloney-MacDonald’s close-range score was just over two minutes into the second half.
“Do you know what, I never underestimate a good old mauling try as well. It’s a good try. But look, as we develop depth in positions across the board, the ability to be able to hit and go, or the ability to pull the trigger on the edge, we’re developing more capability, aren’t we?
“So it’s a good chance, and if you look across the board today there’s been some good tries. Although, the one after half-time is really important because you go 45 points up and you come out and you’re looking for a reaction even when you’re that sort of dominant on the scoreboard, and that was a really important piece for us.
“I like any tries, and even better when they get converted, and I thought that some of the conversions from Dannah (O’Brien), they were pretty outstanding.”
The result has moved Bemand’s charges up to third in the table ahead of next Saturday’s rematch with France in Clermont-Ferrand. It will be their first time to play the world’s fourth-ranked team since losing last September’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Exeter by five points.
Ireland took a 13-0 lead into the second half of that game, thanks to tries from Linda Djougang and Flood, but their dreams of a semi-final appearance in London were dashed by les Bleues’ fightback which was topped off by a late Morgane Bourgeois penalty.
Coming into what could be a crunch clash in terms of how the 2026 Championship pans out for his squad, the Ireland boss added: “We have got to take stock of this performance and go to France next week.
“We’re going to go after ourselves, there are some things to tidy up from today but if we get those bits right, we know we can put in a performance to compete with the French. We’ve just got to keep going. We think we are getting better.
“We see it in training. The first game away to England is as hard as it comes, as is next week, but we will just be looking after ourselves and we’ll keep trying to get better every time we play. We think we are getting a better and better group for that.”