Ireland coach Scott Bemand rued a first half where “everything” went in the “wrong way” as his side were beaten 21-8 by hosts Canada in the WXV1 tournament in Vancouver.
The game unravelled for the Irish in the second quarter as the sin-binning of props Linda Djougang and Niamh O’Dowd was punished by three Canadian tries before the visitors returned to the full complement.
That left Ireland 21-3 down at half-time although Bemand praised his side for holding Canada scoreless in the second half as Eimear Considine’s try was the only score.
“This group doesn’t know when it’s beaten. They show layers of resilience that we’ve been after and we’ve been building,” said the Ireland coach.
“The girls restocked at half-time and they’ve come out and won the second half 5-0.”
Canada, went into the game, having moved to second in the world rankings by beating France last weekend and will win the tournament if they defeat England in their concluding game next weekend.
After their shock victory over world champions New Zealand a week ago, Ireland started the game in promising fashion by producing early pressure.
However, they failed to turn their early territorial superiority into points and Bemand said the match video analysis will focus on that.
“We had opportunities in that game that we’ll look pretty hard at. We convert a couple of those opportunities in the first half and we’re right in that game.
“A couple of loose decisions and breakdown decisions that have cost us with penalties, which have given Canada their ‘in’ and suddenly you’re three tries down.”
Enya Breen, captaining the side in Edel McMahon’s injury-enforced absence, hailed the “fight” displayed by the team despite the defeat.
“Obviously a few key moments didn’t go our way in the first half and we found ourselves fighting from behind early. I’m hugely proud of the fight the girls showed,” said the Ireland skipper.
Ireland will complete their tournament with next weekend’s contest against USA and Breen insisted the team will take momentum into that game despite Saturday’s loss.
“Today doesn’t change that. We keep going next week and we keep building.”
