Women's Six Nations: Ireland taking positives despite Wales defeat - Fryday

Ireland captain Nichola Fryday says she is "proud, not disheartened" despite defeat by Wales in Saturday's Women's Six Nations opener.

Wales fought back and outmuscled Ireland in the second half to secure a 27-19 victory in Dublin.

Fryday captained Ireland for the first time under new coach Greg McWilliams and said she was "proud" of her team.

"I'm excited for the next couple of weeks because we showed glimpses of the rugby that we want to play," she said.

"We're extremely disappointed but I'm proud of what the girls did out there. They left everything on the pitch and credit to Wales, it was a clinical win."

The win at the RDS ended a seven-game losing streak for Wales in the Women's Six Nations and exacted some revenge for a 45-0 mauling by the Irish last year.

However, Ireland then failed to qualify for the Rugby World Cup before Adam Griggs left his role as head coach and captain Ciara Griffin, prop Lindsay Peat and back row Claire Molloy retired from international rugby.

Past and present players criticised the IRFU's handling of the women's game before an internal review was carried out following a turbulent 2021.

'Ireland striving to improve'

With McWilliams appointment and fresh faces in the squad, the 2022 Six nations marked a new dawn for Ireland and Fryday said the failure to qualify for the World Cup meant Ireland could look at the bigger picture.

"Yeah, we're not going to a World Cup but we will be trying to develop and implement what we are trying to do," added the second row.

"We now have that year to try and do that. We have to take the positives from the situation.

"You could see in our attack when we got into our fast-paced game with quick ball, that is when we were on the front foot.

"Over the next couple of weeks there will hopefully be more opportunities to play that style of rugby.

"We want to go out each week and keep getting more experience in the squad. We're just taking it gamy by game now.

"It will be a tough match away to France but we are really looking forward to that challenge."