'The players turn up every day, every week, trying to get better'

Ireland women’s head coach Scott Bemand is looking beyond the scoreline for gains across fixtures within the inaugural WXV Global Series.

Tallaght Stadium in Dublin will host Ireland against USA on Sunday, a side ranked eighth in the world, before future fixtures against Japan (September 27, Galway; October 3, Cork) and South Africa (October 24, away; October 21, away) within the forthcoming schedule.

placeholder image — Ireland women's head coach Scott Bemand. (Photo by Brian Lawless/PA Wire)

"We've got the talent now and the capability to play a couple of different ways and a really good brand of rugby," said Bemand on the official Ireland Rugby website. "It is exciting, it's fast-paced...it's got power, it's got movement.

"We are going to be able to kick the ball, we're going to be able to field the ball.

"It feels like we are on the cusp of something...it won't just happen because each year teams will take us a bit more seriously and those final per cents are always the hardest per cents to come by - but the harder we try, the better we will get, the luckier we'll get, the bounce of the ball will go the other way.

"The players turn up every day, every week, trying to get better and it is a pleasure to watch and to be a part of.

"We're at the start of a World Cup cycle now...the Six Nations, we wanted to keep the momentum from the World Cup going and this is the sort of turning of the page.

"Looking three years ahead, what do we need to get under our belts before then?

"We need to develop our depth and see who is coming through.

"We've got three home games coming up now in the Global Series.

"We want to have the ability to go deeper in tournaments, so you need to build experience.

"Workload placed on a narrow group of people, rugby being rugby, you're going to pick up bumps and bruises and what have you, so we need to develop our depth.

"We need to see who's coming through...(in) three years' time, there is the potential of something like 28 caps to play for, so if you're a new cap coming in now and you go to the World Cup you have the potential of 25-plus caps.

"So we're starting to see talent and understand what talent we need to bring through, and this represents the first chance to do that."

IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC/Leinster), Robyn O’Connor (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC/Leinster), Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow RFC/Leinster), Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC/Munster), Niamh O’Dowd (Gloucester-Hartpury), Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs), Fiona Tuite-O'Sullivan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Jemima Adams Verling (Galwegians RFC/Connacht), Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Aoife Wafer (Harlequins).

Replacements: Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), Sadhbh McGrath (Cooke RFC/Ulster), Eilís Cahill (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster), Jane Clohessy (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster), Brittany Hogan (Sale Sharks), Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht), Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC/Connacht), Niamh Gallagher (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby).