'Bit of naivety' but Scott Bemand proud of Irish fight in loss to Canada

Scott Bemand was left to rue Ireland's naivety in the second quarter of their WXV1 loss to Canada but is confident his team are on the right track.

Ireland lost two props, Linda Djougang and Niamh O’Dowd, to the sin-bin in the space of a minute, in which they conceded a penalty try.

They responded with a Dannah O’Brien penalty while down to 13 players but let Canada in for two more converted tries before they were back to their full complement.

Bemand’s side kept the hosts at the Langley Event Centre in Vancouver scoreless after the break, while Eimear Considine’s try got Ireland back to within two scores but they failed to breach the Canada defence again.

"It shows where we are and where we’ve got to that we’re disappointed with the result," the head coach told RTÉ Sport after the 21-8 defeat to the world ranked number two team.

"The performance, there’s a bunch of stuff that’s gone on in that game that could have rocked any team. To be right in the game deep into the first half...

"There was a bit of naivety where we copped two seven-pointers late in the first half but then we regroup and win the second half five-nil.

"We’re sitting here disappointed that we didn’t execute more chances, that we didn’t execute when we got into their 22.

"We think we’ve left some points out there. I’m immensely proud of the girls. We came here and said we want to leave respected; I think we’ve come some way to earning a bit more of that respect.

"But we’re quickly wanted to move through the gears and be in them games right at the death."

Ireland qualified for the top tier after finishing third at the Six Nations and there was fear the jump up from WXV3 might have come too soon for the squad, which finished bottom on the standings in the 2023 Six