Scott Bemand: New Ireland boss says New Zealand model can help blend sevens players into XVs team

Eve Higgins made her Ireland XVs debut in 2021

New head coach Scott Bemand believes Ireland can use the New Zealand example to make the most effective use of sevens players.

Irish sevens stars Eve Higgins and Beibhinn Parsons scored four tries apiece as they returned to the XVs team for the first time in 18 months in Friday's 109-0 win over Kazakhstan.

The Black Ferns integrated sevens players into their side as they won the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup and Bemand spoke of how building relationships between the codes will be vital.

"There are some strategic goals, both in the sevens programme and the XVs. The IRFU has been pretty clear on what our goals are," Bemand explained.

The former England assistant, who was appointed as Ireland head coach in July, was speaking as he named his team for their second WXV match, against Colombia in Dubai on Saturday.

Higgins and Parsons, who had not played since the 2022 Six Nations before the win over Kazakhstan, are once again named at centre and wing respectively. They are part of the Ireland sevens team that has qualified for next year's Olympic Games.

Beibhinn Parsons scored four tries against Kazakhstan

While Bemand did not answer directly on how available they will be to for XVs matches in the future, he did speak enthusiastically about how he hopes he can use them more.

"We have a player pool that is available to us. It has basically become a relationship piece whereby 'this is us', so the women's game is supported and supports each other," he continued.

"There will be players at times that spend time in the sevens programme and players who spend time in the XVs programme. There will be a mutual growth of those players.

"We have seen it in other environments, if you look at the Black Ferns in the last World Cup and how they were able to blend in sevens players with XVs to ultimately achieve a goal.

"The player pool is what we have got in Ireland and we are going to maximise it. It will be based on a strong relationship between the XVs and the sevens programme, so myself and TJ [sevens head coach Allan Temple-Jones] are very aligned and actually work very closely.

"People have spoken about what that would look like and that will be a really, really strong plan of where players spend their time, how they spend their time and how they develop. Already there is a lot of good that work has gone in, we are pretty excited to see where we can take it."

'All roads lead to World Cup qualification'

Bemand took over as Ireland head coach in July

Ireland had gone 12 months without winning a match before they ran in 17 tries in the opening game of tier three of the new WXV competition, which is aimed at providing annual fixtures for sides outside World Cup years.

Bemand, who took over from Greg McWilliams, was realistic about the standard of the opposition they are facing in the WXV while also speaking about how pleasantly surprised he has been with what he has seen from his squad so far.

Competitiveness in training seems to be a key pillar of his approach and he said that qualification for the 2025 World Cup - after Ireland missed out on the last one - is his overarching aim.

"We are here [in Dubai] for a purpose. We understand why we are here," he said.

"All roads ultimately lead to qualification for the next World Cup and we know our first controllable for that is the next Six Nations.

"We have come in and we have got a bit of a chance here, we have got to grow a few things and get a few things in place. That referred to Friday as well and we are still on plan with a lot of that."

He added: "There is a blended approach to growing the game. There is a bit of a continuation where you want to build some consistency but you want to grow a little bit.

"We are on plan. Coming out to Dubai gave us a certain opportunity and a bit of time without the clamour that surrounds a Six Nations, and that has allowed us to build a training identity, getting girls up to speed with how we want to play and how we want to go forward.

"We have worked on some combinations, blooded new caps and so far the wheels are turning in the right direction."