'I'm confident we'll land a few' - Ireland coach Bemand

Scott Bemand guided Ireland to a third-place finish in last year's Women's Six Nations

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand says he is confident that his side "can land a few" as they prepare to begin their Women's Six Nations campaign against France in Belfast on Saturday.

The Irish finished third in last year's Six Nations to clinch a place at this summer's World Cup, then overcame Australia and secured a stunning win over world champions New Zealand in September in the WXV1 tournament.

Their next challenge is to try and break the dominance established by England and France in the Six Nations over recent years.

"We've got to move our game forward. We're hungry to close the gap on perhaps the monopoly held by England and France, to a degree. They've been the top two in the Six Nations for a good while," reflected Bemand before the weekend encounter with Les Bleus.

"Last year we scored 17 points [in a 38-17 defeat by France] and we hadn't scored a point for three years before that.

"Obviously they [France] have had a relatively tough WXV1, they said they reviewed it hard over in France, so bringing them to our shores gives us a great opportunity to test ourselves."

'We'd certainly like to fire a few more shots'

Bemand believes his side can be even more competitive against the French this time round.

"We've made some advances to our game, we've been throwing a reasonable amount at the players, trying to take them forward in terms of learning, bits of our game that we believe we can be successful with in the game against France.

"So, we'd certainly like to fire a few more shots than we did last time.

"There are a bunch of experiences that we've been through in last year's Six Nations and the WXV1 and I think there's a great group there that can play in a few different ways."

Bemand believes the strength of Ireland's replacements will be an important factor in making them competitive at Kingspan Stadium.

"The strength of a squad you can usually see in what firepower you have on the bench and we have firepower on the bench," he added.

"France are a good team and I think it will come down to that last 20 minutes. So we're going to need the 23 to perform at the weekend. I have every confidence in our group we're building nicely, building our depth nicely.

"I expect France to start in their usual manner, they'll throw everything at it, belt and braces, so we're expecting them to come out full of confidence, but we know we're a very hard team to beat and a better team now than we were a year ago."