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Griggs hails 'outrageous' Beibhinn Parsons as Ireland get vital win

Ireland head coach Adam Griggs said he felt his side deserved their victory after they beat Italy...
98FM
98FM

18.01 19 Sep 2021


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Griggs hails 'outrageous' Beib...

Griggs hails 'outrageous' Beibhinn Parsons as Ireland get vital win

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98FM
98FM

18.01 19 Sep 2021


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Ireland head coach Adam Griggs said he felt his side deserved their victory after they beat Italy in their Women's Rugby World Cup qualifier on Sunday afternoon.

15-7 was the final score in Parma thanks to a try in each half from Beibhinn Parsons and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe.

Stacey Flood kicked the conversion of the second through the posts as well as a penalty.

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The result means Ireland still have a chance to qualify for next year's tournament as they bounced back from their shock defeat to Spain during the week.

Speaking after the game Griggs felt they were full value for the win.

"I'm happy that we got the result we were after.

"I thought we did a really good job of keeping Italy at bay and forcing pressure on them through our defence.

"It was something we spoke about this week, putting a real emphasis on closing down their space and not giving them time on the ball and I thought we did a really good job of that and it showed.

"Them struggling to exit kept us in the right areas of the field.

"It would have been nice to execute a couple more of those opportunities but at the same time we were after the result and we're happy with that."

Ireland's second try, which came just after the hour mark, was simply insane.

Beibhinn Parsons evaded seven Italian players before eventually being brought to ground in the build-up.

Ireland then played the ball out wide to allow Murphy Crowe to score.

Griggs had particularly high praise for 19-year-old Parsons.

"She's outrageous. She had a really good game, she's so hard to beat one-on-one.

"The beauty of her collecting that ball at the back, having time and space to pick out players one-on-one meant she was able to use her feet, bounce them off and get into space quickly with that acceleration that she has.

"The pleasing aspect for me of the try was that once she was brought to ground we recycled the ball quickly.

"I spoke about during the week having trust in the backs to execute.

"There was some really good passing, using the ball to the width, and it was great to see Amee-Leigh on the other end of that scoring the try for us.

"I'm really happy with how clinical we were with that and I think it was a good confidence booster for those players."


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