'I wasn’t as clear as I could have been' - Adam Griggs looks to clarify comments about IRFU and women's rugby
Ireland women’s head coach Adam Griggs has sought to clarify remarks made on the running of the sport in this country after admitting an answer to a question earlier this week had caused confusion.
"I fielded a question on the domestic game and who was in charge," he said in a prepared statement this afternoon after announcing the team to face Italy this weekend.
"On reflection, I probably wasn’t as clear as I could have been so I feel it is important to acknowledge the work that Collie McEntee and Amanda Greensmith and the domestic game do in running our path-way and also our interprovincial series so hopefully that can clear up some of the comments that were made."
Griggs was asked why there had been confusion.
"I probably got put on the spot a little bit and I didn’t want to come across that we were putting it under any one person.
"As I stated, it’s the whole organisation running this thing, different departments taking charge of different parts of the organisations. At the time, on the spot, I wasn’t as clear as I could have been.
"The questions are understandable. What we have is a god model and a good structure. There is more work to grow the game, get the numbers up which will improve the competitiveness at the top level of the game. It was important to make that clarification."
On Tuesday, Griggs had spoken about structural issues in the sport here.
"You can see that that level of competition is driving their (England’s) international team, so, I can’t speak for those competitions (AIL and interpro) – I don’t organise them," he said.
"But I believe both those sides of it – AIL into interpro series - will help us select players of a competitive nature who are ready to step up into the international scene."
Asked who was responsible for running those competitions Griggs responded:
"It would be people above me in the IRFU."
"I couldn’t tell you,” said Griggs when asked who specifically ran the competitions.
"Well, I know that we are running it as a body but you are looking for names and I am unable to give you names of who is running it.
"I am here to do my job and select a team and prepare them to play a Six Nations competition this week and that is what I am concentrating on."
The IRFU held two press conferences this week but there were no international players provided to promote their home game at either one.
Griggs was asked to comment on this issue but was interrupted by a spokesperson who insisted that it was IRFU "media policy" and he also refused an invite to deliver his opinion on the policy.
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