Ireland forward Dorothy Wall says their sensational victory over New Zealand is “what dreams are made of”.
Scott Bemand’s side stunned the defending World Cup champions with a 29-27 win in their first game of the WXV1 competition in Vancouver this morning.
Ireland scored five tries including two apiece from Aoife Wafer and substitute Erin King while an outstanding defensive squad effort limited the Black Ferns to three tries.
It was King’s second try for Ireland in the 79th minute that levelled the score at 27-all with the successful conversion from out-half Dannah O’Brien sealing a win for the ages.
It’s the biggest indicator to date of the remarkable transformation of this team which finished bottom of the 2023 Women’s Six Nations on zero points just 17 months ago.
Ireland now also boast a 2-1 win record over the Black Ferns with their first win a decade ago in the pool stage of the 2014 World Cup in France.
“It’s insane, it’s what dreams are made of but we were prepared for these moments,” a thrilled Wall said after.
“We had absolute belief in what we were going to do. It’s crazy where we’ve come in two years to beat the Black Ferns in WXV1 is something that we dreamed of.”
This was echoed by her team-mate who’s on her way to becoming one of the stars of the global game.
For the second test in a row, Wafer scored two tries in another player of the match performance after her feats in the win over the Wallaroos two weeks ago.
“It’s pretty indescribable, to be honest,” Wafer admitted. “As a kid growing up in rugby, I’ve dreamed of this day. I’ve dreamed of facing the haka, I’ve dreamed of beating the All Blacks and the Black Ferns and we’ve done that here today.
“Yeah, I’m so proud of everyone in our squad.”
Wafer’s two tries came in the first half when she once again showed her devastating impact running from the base of the attacking scrum.
“I suppose the girls like to give me the ball a little bit and I just put my head [down] and try and run through a brick wall for them.
“I’ll do anything for the team and if that means stuffing it up the jumper and running into somebody I’ll do that,” Wafer added.
This game in Vancouver will live long in the memory. The game was tied at 17-all at half-time with the two tries from Wafer and a try from Neve Jones.
Ireland didn’t break when they were reduced to 14 players in the second half after prop Niamh O’Dowd – who had the most carries of any player in the game with 13 – was yellow-carded.
King then came off the bench for just her second international 15s game to score a brace of tries after excellent moves at the line-out (which had an 81 per cent success rate) with O’Brien rising to the occasion with the clutch conversion kick at the end.
“It feels like a pretty big step,” Bemand said about the win. “We always talk about keeping the momentum going.
“We always said we wanted to be first and foremost a really hard team to play against and at 60 minutes we were in it. We sort of started to believe more and more.
“Obviously they came out pretty fast and there was a bit of hanging on to start with, but the girls started to adapt to the pace of it.
“I think we started to really believe in what we’ve been doing behind the scenes and how that transmits to the pitch.
“Examples would be we managed to put them into their half and we defended for our lives inside their half so.
“Look, we’re building minutes, we’re building important moments within games which feeds the evidence really which feeds the confidence bank. We’re getting there.
Bemand also praised Wafer and King.
“Oh, I think we got two superstars there coming through. But neither one can do it on their own. Tricky [Edel McMahon, captain]’s leadership, some of the line-speed from a prop that Niamh O’Dowd puts in is incredible.
“There’s performances across the board, aren’t there really. So, yeah, not singling people out but we got a couple of special players coming through.
“The rest of the group giving them the platform to perform is what it’s all about.”
The turn-around in this team’s form has been breath-taking. This time last year, they edged Spain 15-13 to win WXV3 in Dubai with Bemand just a few months in the job.
They finished third in the 2024 Women’s Six Nations which sealed their place in next year’s World Cup and also in the top tier of the global WXV competition.
Two weeks ago, they beat Australia 36-10 with one of their best displays in years before going to another level with this win over the number two ranked team in the world.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling but the group had massive belief all week. We believe in what we’re doing. We believe in the connections that we have with each other. We believe in the staff. We work really, really hard, off the pitch,” said captain Edel McMahon.
“We work even harder on the pitch, we’re competing at every training session. For us, that just validates exactly what we’re doing. And we couldn’t be more proud of the girls.
“The minute the opportunity came we were like, yeah absolutely, we deserve to be up there with the best.
“And that’s where we want to challenge ourselves because we know we’ve a World Cup to compete in and this is the platform where we get to show the world we can.”
Bemand also paid tribute to the new coaches that have come in for this season including Alex Codling, the new forwards coach, and Hugh Hogan, the new defence coach.
“We’ve brought some new coaches in. And I’m delighted to see their work come to fruition. We’ve invested in our pack,” he said.
“We wanted more from our set-piece against a strong New Zealand team tonight. It wasn’t all perfect, but we were able to drive them. We were able to hold our own in the scrum.
“And the kicking game; that can only really come to life when you can defend high up the pitch. We put them in the positions that we wanted to.
“It’s pretty reflective really of where we’ve put our work. The forwards with Codders [Alex Codling], the defensive piece with Hugh [Hogan] and then the girls bring it to life.”
And what life there is now in Irish women’s rugby.