Ireland stars welcome Government's granting of elite status to Six Nations clash with France

Ireland's Lauren Delany, pictured in action against France in 2019

David Kelly Twitter Email

April 13 2021 03:14 PM

Ireland stars Lauren Delany and Nichola Fryday have expressed relief that their Six Nations clash with France in Donnybrook has been granted elite status by government and health authorities.

This will allow the French to arrive here on Thursday and play the match without submitting to new mandatory hotel quarantine regulations.

From a position where Ireland’s women were being denied the chance to play a few months ago due to their non-elite status, the government’s subsequent reversal of that policy – the latest in a series of inexplicable inconsistencies in their treatment of various strands of Irish sport – has removed the threat of yet another deeply disappointing postponement for a side who have suffered so many in the last 14 months.

“It’s a relief for the game to go ahead,” said lock Fryday, whose side tackle French for the right to play England in the Six Nations finale on Saturday week following a thumping 45-0 opening weekend win against Wales.

Gwen Crabb of Wales and Nichola Fryday of Ireland compete for a lineout during last weekend's Women's Six Nations match at Cardiff Arms Park

“We’re really looking forward to it and our next focus is to get on the pitch. We can’t control what is going on outside so we are just focused on our preparation.

“We were obviously very happy with the win against Wales and then on Sunday you have more uncertainty. We’ve dealt with it on numerous occasions over the past year so we learn to focus on ourselves and just prepare for a game. It’s not something we can control.

“Our attitude is always if it goes ahead, we have to be ready anyway and if it doesn’t, we still need to have the right head space in training.”

Wing Lauren Delany agreed that it was a relief for a side who have seen two attempts to complete last year’s Six Nations abandoned, as well as World Cup qualifiers.

“We’ve had loads of ups and downs and we’ve had to adapt and be really flexible.

“We’ve learned how to do that in our day jobs and as a team and no matter what happens in next few weeks, we can adapt and just focus on what is next at hand.

“It’s been a good while since we played France so we’re excited to play one of the best teams in the word and demonstrate how we can compete with some of the best.”

“We’re hugely excited,” added Fryday. “We’re under no illusions that it will be a huge test, we can push ourselves and establish ourselves as to where we are as a squad.

“It was a long six months without a game and we knew we had put in really good training sessions and were building nicely and we just wanted to put that on the pitch against Wales.

“It came together and obviously we can improve but we’re in a good place to push on. France have threats all over but it’s down to what we can do to put pressure on them. We’re just focusing on ourselves.

“We can work more on our phased play, at times we lost our way in the second-half so we can improve there, that’s our main point.

“They like to play fast but we want to play fast. In defence, we need to shut them down so that intensity may shut down that temp and hopefully we can put pressure on them with our tempo.

“We need to be ready on both sides of the ball.”