Women's Six Nations 2024: Ireland 'either winning or learning' - Edel McMahon
- Published
Edel McMahon lifts the WXV3 titles with co-captain Sam Monaghan as Ireland claimed a morale-boosting triumph
Joint-captain Edel McMahon says Ireland will be "winning or learning" as they aim to qualify for the World Cup with a lofty finish in the Six Nations.
Ireland's women start the new campaign away to France on 23 March after finishing bottom of the 2023 Six Nations with zero points.
Since then, Scott Bemand has been appointed head coach and Ireland won the inaugural WXV3 title in October.
"Learning week on week is what needs to happen," said back row McMahon.
Under the leadership of Adam Griggs, Ireland failed to make the World Cup in 2021 after a shock defeat by Spain and a narrow loss to Scotland in the European qualifiers.
Greg McWilliams replaced Griggs as head coach in 2022 but, after an initial promising display in his debut Six Nations, a winless showing in last year's competition saw Ireland take the Wooden Spoon with five defeats.
That led Ireland to drop into WXV3 for the inaugural tournament and, under former England attack coach Scott Bemand, they won their three matches to earn promotion to WXV2.
While England and France have already qualified for the World Cup as semi-finalists from the previous edition, a spot in the finals in England next year is on offer to the highest-placed of the other four sides in the Six Nations.
Third place will be enough if England and France occupy the top two positions.
There will be a further chance to qualify through the WXV tournament, but McMahon said immediate qualification through the Six Nations is "our objective".
McMahon missed the 2023 Six Nations with a toe injury but said the squad found it quite hard "to go week on week losing games".
"One of the main objectives for us is that that we are actually learning from our mistakes from the week before," Exeter back row McMahon added.
"Even the squad since then, I've witnessed it grow and develop with those new girls coming in for WXV being quite successful.
"That was helping us prepare for this tournament as a squad, getting that kind of groundwork in new identity training with Scott, so we're winning or we're learning.
"Obviously the competition in WXV3 isn't quite the standard that we want it to be at, but having won games and building on that momentum, building on that confidence, then that cohesion as a squad will only be a benefit for us when we do come up for those tougher games."
