One of the main lessons which sport and business share is the ability to suffer disappointment and to bounce back.
The Irish Women’s Rugby team showed themselves to be very much in the winning space on Saturday as a record crowd for a game on Irish spoil watched at Kingspan Stadium as they beat Scotland, secured qualification for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England and third place in this year’s Guinness Women’s six Nations.
In the end it came down to the one extra bonus point that Ireland secured over Scotland and Italy with all three teams having finished on two wins and three defeats.
Setting stretch but also attainable goals is one of the keys to good management and Scott Bemand will be in the running for Coaching Honours and Awards having taken the team from zero wins at the Championships in 2024 to third place this year, only seven days after conceding 88 points to England at Twickenham.
At the start of the season the ambition would have been to finish ‘best of the rest’ behind England and France.
Defeat to Italy at the RDS in the second game was a blow but bouncing back at the end to get a losing bonus point and then defeating Wales in Cork put them back on track before that demoralising hammering against the eventual Champions.
Returning to the High Performance Centre, Bemand and the team knew they had only a week to heal the wounds of that up and down campaign and refocus against a Scotland team that would be favourites coming into the Final match.
An attritional first half with a zero score on the board at half time will have done little to assist but even with just 40 minutes to achieve the desired outcome, that’s what they did. Taking the penalty points they had passed on in the first half, Ireland took the lead with eight minutes to go and then resisted Scotland’s late push to set up scenes of wild celebration on the pitch in Belfast.
They will now compete in WXV1 in the Autumn, setting up potential tough days against New Zealand, England and France but the ability to keep focused on development rather than the result at the end of 80 minutes will make them better at a crucial stage of development.
Confidence comes from within rather than the scoreboard and this team obviously held on to their belief that they were better than Twickenham and capable still of getting to the goals they will have set together over the Winter.
Missing the last World Cup in New Zealand was a blow but missing a second one, in England, where the ability to inspire future generations and create fan memories of a lifetime would have been so much worse.
Now that has been set aside, they can continue to work on the improvements that are still required and they can look back on a tournament that could have slipped away but didn’t that. That will give them strength to be better again.
The IRFU, Vodafone, Energia, Aviva, Ulster Rugby and the Aviva Stadium are full members of the Sport for Business community.
The Sport for Business Membership comprises nearly 300 organisations including all the leading sports and sponsors, commercial and state agencies.
Find out more about joining us today.
Be part of the biggest community of sporting and business organisations in Ireland by becoming a member of Sport for Business and enjoying a host of benefits.
Get ready to join us for some of these forthcoming events…
