Ireland's heavy defeat to England in the Women's Six Nations at the weekend certainly wasn't helped by a sin-bin for Dorothy Wall, and the gap between amateur and professional thereafter became more glaring.
Former Irish internationals Fiona Hayes and Grace Davitt joined host Aisling O'Reilly on The Six Nations Show live from Vodafone HQ in Dublin today.
During the conversation on the tough 69-0 defeat at Welford Road, Davitt says the gap in pro and amateur made it almost impossible for Greg McWilliams' side to recover.
"In those last 20 minutes is where professional versus amateur really shows, and when you're down to 14 versus 15 for that amount of time, the amount of tackles Ireland did compared to England, your body is broken.
"They were sucking Ireland in and you're just working so hard, it's really difficult against a world-class team.
"It's something Wales highlighted, that even in the short period of time of them going professional, they've seen their numbers in the gym go up - weights on the squat, their bench-press, chin-ups, their conditioning.
"It's down to recovery time - we used to train four sessions a weekend, and it could be full contact! See by Sunday afternoon, I would have been physically crying sometimes because you'd be in so much pain, so much agony because it's such a physical game.
"Whereas if you can do your weights and have a two-hour sleep and get your food in, you're then ready to go for your skill sessions, you can train under fatigue and then rest after."
Hayes, who lined out for Munster and Ireland during a stellar career, agreed that it was time for serious consideration to be put into Ireland narrowing that gap.
"There'd be ladders 100 metres up, and my forearms would be killing me!" 😫@GraceDavitt's work on cranes in Belfast used to have her wrecked for her rugby career!
The Six Nations Show | @VodafoneIreland | #TeamOfUs
FULL SHOW: https://t.co/b2FvCROxba pic.twitter.com/pxw5W76QuG— Off The Ball (@offtheball) April 26, 2022
"I think it was Aoife McDermott who put up a post, she was [working] in the hospital at I think 9AM Monday morning after playing 65 minutes against England. It is what it is, but it needs to be looked at now.
"We're now seeing over the years, we might have got away with it, but the gap is getting bigger and bigger and when Aoife's getting back to work, England are flying out to France to get ready for the game on Saturday.
"They're able to chill out on the plane, legs up... it's not right if you want the gap to narrow. I'm not going to say 'Here, hand out contracts' because the other thing is they don't have money.
"Some of these girls might only be on say €14,000 - are you going to leave your job as a physiotherapist for that? So there's a lot of stuff behind that they need to look at as well, maybe getting a shorter weekday for them and eventually go full-time for the young girls coming through.
"If we don't do it now, we're going to be way behind everyone else."
With thanks to Vodafone, proudly supporting the Irish women’s rugby team. We all belong to the Team Of Us.
