“The key is not the will too win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”
We’ve landed in Atlanta, Georgia. Here, they hold the third leg of the HSBC Women’s World Series.
‘Prepare’, an important word we took away from Sao Paulo.
Prepare, for training, for recovery, for the fight, the physicality of what Sevens is all about. As the famous Ali Miller would say, “It’s not tiddlywinks we’re playing.”
That’s what we’ve learnt: Prepare to put everything on the table and hold nothing back.
Two years on
As I sit in the hotel room, writing this article, it is bringing back some great memories.
Two years ago I made my debut here at the Atlanta Sevens and received my first Sevens cap for Ireland. It’s a great feeling to be back again competing on the World Series circuit, a much more experienced player to when I first started. Its whole new squad and a whole new outlook.
We have had a couple of new squad changes, which has added an extra flair to the group. Two members of the Irish squad were involved in the recent Six Nations with the women’s senior side.
Fitness star Sene Naoupu, who played in all five Six Nations games, returns to the circuit. Kim Flood is set to add to her collection of Ireland caps, having won her first XV cap against Italy. She will look to make her series debut in Atlanta. Hannah Tyrell is fit and back on the squad, after coming back from a shoulder injury last year.
It is an exciting prospect, to see what these girls can bring to a team. A team, and it feels like drinking vinegar as I type this, that came last in the past two world series tournaments.
I, for one, can’t wait to play along side them. As a team, we’ve set the bar high and want to finish in the top 8.
There are assumed facts with this Ireland team. It is very frustrating to feel, especially when you are surrounded by teams who clearly have forgotten what it is like to be at the bottom of the table.
Ireland have the mentality to fight for everything, not let our team mates down and accept that we will be judged on exceptionally high standards.
The most cutting video reviews are always the calmest – ‘You missed a tackle here, you were out of position there, if you had of done this here we would have scored there. And we would be staring at a 10 point swing.’
So you learn. Fast. You trust the system. Stick to the script.
Tricky draw
We have been drawn in Pool B, alongside Russia, France and Canada, the runners-up from the last tournament in San Paulo, Brazil.
We get another crack at Russia and Canada. We know what to expect from both – very physical, fast paced game.
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We are definitely up for this challenge. The Russians won’t go down without a fight and the Canadians try to bully you out of the game.
It is a good time to leave an impression on the Russian side. They are one of the teams that will compete with us for the final Rio 2016 spot, at this June’s Olympic Reperchage in UCD.
The pool games in Atlanta will take place on Friday, April 8, with the play-off fixtures run off the following day. You can catch the links to our games on the Irish Rugby website.
Something I learned early on is not too worry about what we can’t control. Rather, we will focus on what we can control: our attitude, our efforts and focus every single day in the run up to this huge tournament for us.
With that we will be successful.
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