Fiona Coghlan: Aim must be to avoid wooden spoon and third tier of Women's XV

Fiona Coghlan says she saw more "fight" in the Irish side that fell to a record defeat to France but talk of an improvement on their defeat to Wales is "a bit patronising".

The former Ireland captain, who led the team to a Grand Slam in 2013, poured cold water on attempts to draw too many positives from the 53-3 defeat, during which France played for 60 minutes a woman down. Ireland lost 31-5 away to Wales in the previous round.

"It’s a bit patronising to say it’s an improved performance," the ex-prop told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"There was a bit more fight in the players.

"It’s hard to say whether their scrum improved, there were two scrums that were eight on eight and then France got the red card.

"In those scrums they seem to have got it sorted. I don’t know whether that’s a selection thing, they selected more experienced props.

"Ireland had lots of ball, they looked to put together some attacking phases but never got over the tryline.

"But 43 missed tackles, that’s just scandalous, a lot of them were just individual errors."

Ten members of Ireland’s original 32-woman squad play in England’s Premier 15s, while the rest built up for the TikTok Women’s Six Nations via the All-Ireland League, the interprovincial series and the Celtic Challenge Cup, while training at the IRFU high performance centre in Dublin.

Contracted players involved in Ireland sevens bid to qualify for next year's Olympic Games are not involved in the Six Nations this season.

"I was a bit disappointed with our Premiership players that came back that didn’t front up," said Coghlan.

"I would have expected more of them because they are at a higher level week in, week out.

"From the interpros, when I was playing, I didn’t see its value.

"They are coming together for