Our review of Ireland Women’s performance in the 2021 Six Nations continues. In Part 1 we had a look at the general trends by Province and club, in Part 2 we will have a look at some of the outstanding individual performances.

Players Used

To recap, Ireland used 27 players over the three games. Five players, Eve Higgins, Emily Lane, Stacey Flood, Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe and Grace Moore, made their International XVs debut, all coming from the International 7s Programme.

Thanks to the statistics now supplied by the Six Nations we are now able to look at different criteria for the player’s performances. You can view the summery in the web story below or read on for more details.

Who did What?

Minutes Played

The stats account for 3,596 minutes out of a maximum total of 3,600 minutes played over the 3 games. There was one yellow card which would give Ireland 3,590 minutes to account for. We are assuming the extra 6 minutes is coming from rounding up individuals minutes played during substitutions etc.

The Top Six players for minutes played are shown below. Blackrock’s Dorothy Wall is the only player to play every minute of every game. Sene Naoupu would have equalled Wall’s total if she hadn’t been yellow carded.

Railway Union’s Higgins made an instant impact in her debut series, playing all but 6 minutes of her first three games.

PLAYER	MINUTES
Dorothy Wall	240
Eve Higgins	234
Sene Naoupu	230
Eimear Considine	223
Beibhinn Parsons	221
Nichola Fryday	218

Points Scored

Ireland scored 85 points over the three games, the points coming from 13 tries, 7 conversions (54% conversion rate) and 2 penalties. 

Blackrock’s Hannah Tyrrell was the leading scorer with 18 points coming from 1 try, 5 conversions and 1 penalty. All Ireland’s scorers from the campaign are shown below.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	TRIES	CONS	PENS	TOTAL POINTS
Hannah Tyrrell	154	1	5	1	18
Dorothy Wall	240	2	0	0	10
Eimear Considine	223	2	0	0	10
Beibhinn Parsons	221	2	0	0	10
Cliodhna Moloney	193	2	0	0	10
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe	102	2	0	0	10
Stacey Flood	134	0	2	1	7
Sene Naoupu	230	1	0	0	5
Emma Hooban	22	1	0	0	5
TOTAL	–	13	7	2	85

Wall, Eimear Considine, Beibhinn Parsons, Cliodhna Moloney and Murphy Crowe topped the try scoring stakes with a brace each but our Top Try Scorer ranking goes to Murphy Crowe who grabbed her brace in the shortest time played.

Shout out to Emma Hooban who crossed for her try with only 22 minutes pitch time.

Try Assists

With 9 tries there are also 9 try assists and one player, Katheryn Dane, sent one third of the players over the line which puts the Ulster scrum half top the Try Assists table.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	ASSISTS
Kathryn Dane	181	3
Dorothy Wall	240	1
Eimear Considine	223	1
Aoife McDermott	184	1
Hannah Tyrrell	154	1
Stacey Flood	134	1
Laura Feely	50	1

Meters Carried

Ireland did try to use their speedsters out wide and wingers Parsons and Murphy Crowe topped the meters per carry table, with full back Considine not far behind. Parsons carried for the Most Metres and Wall had the Most Carries, carving out the hard yards in the heavy traffic up front.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	METERS	CARRIES	METERS PER CARRY
Beibhinn Parsons	221	309	23	13.4
Eimear Considine	223	197	19	10.4
Dorothy Wall	240	178	38	4.7
Sene Naoupu	230	177	30	5.9
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe	102	150	12	12.5
Eve Higgins	234	138	18	7.7

Offloads

Ireland averaged just under 6 offloads per game but I wish they would embrace the risk/rewards of this part of the game more.

Lindsay Peat led the way with three and is the only player to average one offload per game. However, with the speedsters Ireland have in the back three it really is an option they should be trying to develop further.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	OFFLOADS
Lindsay Peat	181	3
Beibhinn Parsons	221	2
Aoife McDermott	184	2
Emily Lane	62	2
Eve Higgins	234	1
Sene Naoupu	230	1
Eimear Considine	223	1
Kathryn Dane	181	1
Hannah Tyrrell	154	1
Brittany Hogan	135	1
Stacey Flood	134	1
Laura Feely	50	1

Tackles Completed

Ireland completed 328 tackles out of a total of 399 attempts for a 82.2% tackle success rate over the series. However, their tackle rates were around 90% against Wales and Italy but dropped to 70% against France who broke up the structured game that Ireland are happiest playing.

Wall competed the most tackles with 29 completed from 33 attempts but it’s Naoupu who is our Top Tackler with a 100% success rate from 27 attempts – though there was one over-exuberant attempt which fell out of the classification, going straight to penalty offence.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	TACKLES MADE	MISSED TACKLES	TACKLE SUCCESS
Dorothy Wall	240	29	4	88%
Sene Naoupu	230	27	0	100%
Cliodhna Moloney	193	18	3	86%
Brittany Hogan	135	18	4	82%
Linda Djougang	193	16	5	76%
Aoife McDermott	184	15	1	94%

Turnovers Won

As the game has become more physical, more structured and more predictable in recent years the turnover has become more important. Ireland competed 16 turnovers over the three games and conceded 40. It seems to be an Irish problem with the men producing similar figures in their Six Nations.

Flood brought her 7s experience to the fore to complete 4 Turnovers Won.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	TURNOVERS WON	TURNOVERS CONCEDED	NET TURNOVERS
Stacey Flood	134	4	2	2
Nichola Fryday	218	3	1	2
Aoife McDermott	184	3	1	2
Claire Molloy	134	2	0	2
Ciara Griffin	156	1	0	1
Hannah O’Connor	113	1	0	1
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe	102	1	0	1

Handling Errors

Ireland made a total of 56 handling errors over the three games which averages out as a couple more than their opponents per game. Unsurprisingly the scrum halves Dane and Lane top this category which generally reflective of the involvement of the various positions.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	HANDLING ERRORS
Kathryn Dane	181	8
Emily Lane	62	8
Dorothy Wall	240	6
Stacey Flood	134	6
Eve Higgins	234	4
Eimear Considine	223	3
Lindsay Peat	181	3
Hannah Tyrrell	154	3
Brittany Hogan	135	3

Penalties Conceded

Ireland conceded an average of just under 15 penalties per game which is one more per game than the opposition. With Ireland struggling to get to grips with their scrum technique in general it’s no surprise that front rowers Moloney and Peat are topping the charts here.

PLAYER	MINS PLAYED	PENS CONCEDED
Cliodhna Moloney	193	6
Lindsay Peat	181	6
Nichola Fryday	218	4
Linda Djougang	193	4
Dorothy Wall	240	3
Sene Naoupu	230	3
Ciara Griffin	156	3
Laura Feely	50	3