Ireland still hungry to get better – Bemand

A lot has changed in the past two years for Scott Bemand and his youthful Ireland squad.

When Ireland last hosted Wales, Bemand was on the search for his first victory as head coach after taking over an Ireland team who had recently finished bottom of the Six Nations table.

Now, two years later, the side were comfortable victors against Wales and have breathing space in third position.

“We said at the very beginning [when taking the head coach role], it was about belief,” Bemand said.

“So, when I first came in, the first season was just about getting the girls to believe they could actually be quite good, and giving themselves permission to go and be brave, knowing they can perform under pressure.

“Where that’s changed over the two years is now, they know they can be good. So now it’s about executing when pressure dials up and dials down.”

France and England will battle it out for the Six Nations title in the final match next weekend and, even though Ireland aren’t pushing those heavyweights, they now established themselves as a young, upcoming squad.

Their victory over Wales is their second of this campaign after an impressive 57-20 win over Italy, who occupy fourth spot.

“We’re starting to handle bigger occasions and bigger pressure more, and with that comes more expectation. But that’s the cool thing, that’s where we want to be,” he continued.

“Our next thing now is we’re going to start converting that belief, that confidence, that understanding and that we’re quite good into results.

“We’ll get there, the trajectory is still up and we’re still hungry to get better. So no doubt we’ll get there and as quick as we can get there, the quicker the better.

Despite their progress, Bemand also acknowledged they still have room to improve.

Ireland have never beaten France nor England with the head coach adding that this must be an aim of the side.

“We do want to be in games where we’re in a position to beat an England and a France.

“Are we getting there? Well, with this competition, we’ve proved that we haven’t as yet.

“So, we’ll take that, but unfortunately it means we have to sit on it for 12 months before we get another crack at them, a top four team.

“Our job now is to get as good as we can in the next year so that when we get them over here, we can condense that scoreline even further.”

Ireland finish their Six Nations campaign with a home match against Scotland on 17 May at Aviva Stadium.