Ireland face Scotland on Saturday with the World Cup in their sights. Former Ireland captain Fiona Coghlan joined Joe Molloy on Monday Night Rugby to talk set pieces and Beibhinn Parsons.
Ireland and Scotland can both reach the World Cup as both teams have won and lost a game so far.
All four teams in the group are on five points, meaning that the two winners of these games will be separated by point differential. Italy have a 10-point head start on Ireland, so they will need a big display to finish first in the group.
Coghlan believes there are reasons to be optimistic after the win over Italy on Sunday, but set pieces remain a major obstacle.
"They had a misfiring lineout throughout," Coghlan said.
"Italy competed and they competed well but it was a litany of errors, whether it was a call or the movement on the ground, the quality of the lift. Once or twice there was an overthrow from Cliodhna Moloney but it certainly wasn't all falling on the hooker.
As a unit, it was really poor."
It wasn't just the lineout either.
"Likewise the scrum got penalized three times in a row in the first half...they should have been penalized a lot more in the first half. They got away with it from Holly Davidson. In general, they're starting quite high.
Set piece is a key area for them this week.”
When Ireland got clean possession off set pieces last week, the quality of winger Beibhinn Parsons was felt.
"We definitely saw it for the first try from Beibhinn Parsons, a really good maul infield that created space on the blindside. Although it was a two v two, when Parsons gets the ball you're going to back her that close from the line."
This is Beibhinn Parsons’ world and we’re all just living in it.
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— Connacht Rugby (@connachtrugby) September 19, 2021
One of Coghlan's biggest criticisms of Ireland two weeks ago was their handling errors and decision-making passing the ball. While they still made some errors this week, there was improvement to point to.
“There still was handling errors, they still were forcing the pass but it wasn't as pronounced as it was in that Spanish game.
They got into work through the phases a lot better...They used the forwards a lot more as opposed to just firing the pass out to try and get it wide. I know there's that eagerness to get it to those two lightning-fast wingers but you have to earn that right to go wide and they did it a little bit better this week, which reduced the errors."
Getting the ball to those wingers might be the key to Ireland making the World Cup.
Adam Griggs hails outrageous Beibhinn Parsons
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