LONG READ Ireland benefitting as coaches transfer knowledge from men's to women's rugby

Aoife Wafer’s first try against France during the most recent Six Nations certainly raised eyebrows. It was a score born of clever interplay, astute analysis and solid execution.

A dummy maul was set, Dorothy Wall spinning out of the mass of bodies to send her number eight charging into a defensive weak spot. Over the whitewash she went, targeting the seam between the lineout and the backline. Five points secured. Chapeau.

If that try came from subtlety, Neve Jones’ effort later in the same match was more a product of braun. A good old rumbling maul knocked the French pack back, Jones falling over the line at the right time. Ditto Wafer when she added her second 20 minutes later.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The French pack traditionally had a significant power advantage over Ireland. The scrum was certainly going the way of Les Bleues. But the lineout?

Irish guile bought one try. Fair enough, everyone can be out-thought. But French forwards have not been out-fought by Irish counterparts for some time. Definitely not to the tune of a pair of maul tries.

Ireland’s set-piece has long been a work in progress, if not a weakness. In the 2024 Six Nations, they ranked bottom for successful lineouts. Fast forward 12 months, they shot up to joint top alongside England.

Volume of successful throws can be a crude statistic. When Ireland actually faced England, their success rate in that one match was a lowly 72 per cent. Progress is rarely linear.

None of which should take away from the fact that not only had Ireland’s lineout improved, it became a try-scoring weapon. The scrum has not necessarily developed into the same threat. It can still have its weak moments.

Still, the overall trends remain positive. Ask players what has changed and each of them points in the direction of a coaching staff leaning on its experience in men’s rugby to drive on the women’s World Cup hopes.

“I think a lot of credit has to go to the coaching staff, to be honest with you,” says Ireland hooker Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald. “Alex Codling has come in and done an amazing job with our lineout, Denis Fogarty with our scrum as well.”

Codling is a man in demand. An England-capped lock, he has been coaching since 2006. He joined the IRFU as women’s forwards coach ahead of the 2024/25 season. By November, Munster got him to double job for their men’s side when forwards specialist Andy Kyriacou left alongside Graham Rowntree.

The reverse, getting the boys to learn off the girls, seems a very progressive move. We should be past the stage of feeling the need to acknowledge it. Yet it seems impossible to escape the sense that a coach would have done this 10-15 years ago.

During a Six Nations down week, Codling worked with Munster in the build-up to their Champions Cup victory over La Rochelle. The following week, he trained with the province on the women’s day off ahead of their clash with England. After the World Cup, Codling will join the province on a full-time basis.

“I don’t really know how he manages to compartmentalise it all,” said Moloney-MacDonald. “He’s very interesting, he’ll often show us clips from plays he might be planning on running with Munster. He’ll show us the same clips around how to exploit opposition weaknesses. I think he shows them clips of stuff we do too.”

Showing video of the men to the women isn’t what catches the eye there. Most of the male players would have been professional for longer than their female counterparts. Egos can be placed aside to learn.

The reverse, getting the boys to learn off the girls, seems a very progressive move. We should be past the stage of feeling the need to acknowledge it. Yet it seems impossible to escape the sense that a coach would have done this 10-15 years ago.

Moloney-MacDonald gets to the heart of why this is an important move, be it deliberate or otherwise on Codling’s part. “It reassures us he’s basing it off principles,” she says.

“The level we get to if we stick to his detail is the same for both of the teams he’s coaching. It doesn’t really matter that it’s Munster or Ireland Women. The detail he’s provided has been something the girls have been crying out for for a long time.”

Codling isn’t the only Irish coach treating rugby as a singular sport, meshing male and female experience. Denis Fogarty, the aforementioned scrum coach, played close to 100 times for Munster as a hooker. His brother, John, held the same coaching job for the Lions this summer.

Denis retired aged 32 due to injury. Nearly 10 years on, his dodgy shoulder doesn’t stop him from coaching by scrumming against his front row charges. Do as I say, and as I do.

“It does seem bonkers but it’s actually not,” says Ireland prop Niamh O’Dowd. “He’ll go in as a hooker or a tighthead depending on the situation.

“He can feel any mistakes we’re making or create scenarios an opposition might [look for], create an angle, put weight through – and he can put a bit more weight through than the girls can.”

Rightly or wrongly, this correspondent’s thoughts immediately turned to safety, only not definitively in any direction. Either for the players themselves or the 42-year-old with shoulder damage packing down against younger professionals – if not both.

He also doesn’t have full function of all of his shoulders, that probably is an advantage for us! He can give you feedback immediately. He can tell you, ‘Yeah that was great’ or ‘No, you weren’t low enough there’, whatever it is.

O’Dowd, though, sees nothing but benefit. If nothing else, it creates fresh competition in an environment which requires constant innovation.

“You can’t let him beat you,” she says. “It’s a fun challenge, I don’t know if he goes easy on us sometimes or if we get it right against him but he doesn’t always win. It’s not too dissimilar to some of the tightheads you come against on the pitch.

“He also doesn’t have full function of all of his shoulders, that probably is an advantage for us! He can give you feedback immediately. He can tell you, ‘Yeah that was great’ or ‘No, you weren’t low enough there’, whatever it is. I love it when he goes in.”

Sod’s law dictates that after acknowledging the work done by Ireland’s set-piece coaches, that area of the game could falter against Japan come Sunday. Multiple forwards involved in this growth are injured. Given Ireland’s scrummaging history, back-up tighthead Christy Haney’s hamstring issue could arguably be the most detrimental of all.

Still, the player praise exists for a reason. Plenty of voices regularly point out the differences between women’s rugby and the male counterpart. In many ways, this is true.

Yet in others, principles are principles no matter who is jumping in the lineout. Players recognise that truth and admire those whose sole interest is passing on that knowledge.