Ireland face the USA in their final game of WXV1 on Friday night looking to cap off their tournament with a win to gather momentum for the World Cup next year.
After a landmark last-minute win over New Zealand, Ireland were soundly beaten by Canada, but head coach Scott Bemand is hoping for a winning end to the Autumn window.
“We want to put our best performance out there and to come home having picked up wins,” he said.
“So if we get to the end of this competition and we leave this Autumn block, including the Australia game, having won three, lost one, that would get momentum moving in the right direction.
“We want to leave these shores being respected and I think we’re earning that. I think the game against Canada, they were complimenting our players after how physical it was. We’ve got to keep backing that up.”
Centre Enya Breen is captain again and said she learned a lot from leading the team against Canada, despite the loss.
“It was a new experience, it was uncomfortable, but I don’t think that was a bad thing,” she said.
“It wasn’t an easy day out there. I’m not going to put any blame on the officials, we didn’t make things easy for ourselves at the same time. It was a good challenge and something I’m hopefully looking forward to getting more experiences with in this match and in the future.”
Erin King will look to build on a blistering start to her 15s career, starting in a powerful back-row alongside fellow standout Aoife Wafer and Brittany Hogan.
Bemand said that he’s delighted with how King has developed during her time in the camp.
“Erin’s a firecracker. She brings loads of energy to everything she does, whether that’s on the pitch or off the pitch she’s superb.
“She’s still pretty raw in terms of how much 15s she’s played but she’s growing every session, adding another layer of detail to her game, without it taking away from her instinctive best”, Bemand said.
Ireland (v USA): S Flood; E Considine, A Dalton, E Breen (capt), A-L Murphy Crowe, N Fowley, E Lane; N O’Dowd, N Jones, L Djougang; D Wall, F Tuite; E King, A Wafer, B Hogan.
Replacements: C Moloney, S McCarthy, A Stock, R Campbell, D Nic a Bháird, M Scuffil-McCabe, D O’Brien, E Higgins.