Niamh Briggs: 'We're dredging things up a lot. It's draining'

Ireland assistant coach Niamh Briggs has said there needs to be a greater focus on the future of women's rugby in Ireland, rather than "dredging up" the past.

It's been another difficult week for the Irish women's side, losing 24-7 away to Italy in the TikTok Women's Six Nations last Saturday, leaving them winless through three games.

That result came in the shadow of a report in the Telegraph last Thursday, detailing reported failings of the IRFU around their women's rugby programme, with head coach Greg McWilliams having to deny that the union was a "sexist" organisation.

"The outside noise is draining, I won't tell you a word of a lie, it's very frustrating," said the Ireland attack and backs coach.

"For someone who's been in the game for so long, we're dredging things up a lot. It's draining. I can't imagine for a player what it's like."

Those thoughts were echoed by captain Nichola Fryday (below), who said while they controversy wasn't necessarily a "distraction", it did take some wind out of their sails.

"It definitely didn't feel nice for us as players to read on a Thursday morning," the second row said.

"It was squad announcement day, they're exciting days for girls. You're going to represent your country, and building ourselves up for a captain's run on Friday. To wake up and read that, it wasn't how you'd want your prep to go for a week, to be honest.

"For me, a lot of the stuff we've had to look over the last few weeks, is that if girls want to read it they can read it, but you have to be able to park it and focus on the job at hand.

"There's some girls who are making the choice to come off social media, because it's too much of a strain but it's something you just have to park. We know what's going on inside our