Women’s Rugby World Cup: Ireland coach Scott Bemand responds to Ruby Tui comments on looming Black Ferns test

Asked about his side’s final pool game of the Rugby World Cup against the Black Ferns, Ireland coach Scott Bemand wasn’t too concerned with what was being said outside the confines of his camp.

It’s a match that shapes up as arguably the most intriguing of any in the tournament’s pool-play stage, given Ireland beat the defending World Cup champions last year and hold a winning record over their New Zealand counterparts.

That intrigue was only added to over the weekend as Black Fern turned BBC pundit Ruby Tui mentioned a BBC radio caller had claimed earlier in the week that Ireland would not go all out in that final pool game.

“We heard on BBC Radio Live the other night that Ireland potentially aren’t going to take the Black Ferns game seriously, which I thought was a huge call on the show,” Tui said during a BBC broadcast.

“That’s what they said, live on the radio to me, but I don’t buy it. I think it’s a double bluff.”

With the top two teams in the pool progressing into the knockout stages, it’s widely assumed that the Black Ferns and Ireland, ranked third and fifth respectively, will progress ahead of Japan (11) and Spain (13).

Should they both win their second-round games as expected, that final pool game will be to decide who finishes top.

But while the idea was floated as to how Ireland might approach the game, their coach was quick to suggest otherwise when asked about it after his side’s 42-14 win over Japan.

“She hasn’t heard that from anybody in Ireland,” Bemand told reporters of Tui’s comments.

“We’ll take this competition seriously, we’ll pay the competition the respect it’s due and we’ll compete for every moment within this competition.

“People will look at it and say ‘if we get that Spain game right, what do we do in that New Zealand game?’ We want to take people along with us. We want to show the world that we’ve continued to evolve as a programme and we need to do that by taking each game incredibly seriously and paying it the respect it’s due.”

Bemand added that he wasn’t too worried about what people were saying about his team’s approach, and that these big tournaments evoked strong emotion and opinion for people.

“We’ll continue to just focus on us. We’ll get the bits that we need to get right right, we’ll try to be a bit better next week and everything else can take care of itself.”

Ireland have played the Black Ferns in three tests, with the Green Wave winning two of those.

They beat the New Zealanders 17-14 in pool play during the 2014 World Cup, a result that saw the then four-time defending champions miss out on the semifinals and ultimately settle for fifth place.

The Black Ferns claimed a 38-8 win when the sides met in 2016, before Ireland got the better of them in Vancouver during last year’s WXV1 tournament, winning 27-24.

As it stands after the opening round of fixtures, the Black Ferns lead the group on points differential following a 46-point win over Spain. They meet Japan in Exeter on Monday morning, with Ireland taking on Spain in Northampton.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.