This was a difficult assignment for Ireland pair Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Nicola Fryday. They've a match on Friday against the United States and part of the process is speaking to the media to promote the game and shift some tickets.
That's all fine when it's a normal week, but instead this has been a remarkable few days for the Ireland women's team whose failure to qualify for the World Cup six weeks' ago continues to dominate the agenda.
IRFU director of women's and sevens rugby Anthony Eddy's gave his thoughts on that performance in Monday and the backlash to that interview has been strong.
Normally, players can blank out the noise but when the comments come from within the camp in the case of hooker Cliodhna Moloney and from a recently retired member of that World Cup qualifying squad it invites further comment.
Moloney chose to go it alone with her tweet describing Eddy's comments as "slurry", but the fact that she put her name to the comment meant her teammates were forced to face up to them today.
So, they attempted to strike a balance between leaving her hanging in the wind and not endorsing her comments at the same time.
"I’ll support Cliodhna, she’s my team-mate," Murphy Crowe said.
"I’ll support all my team-mates, but that’s Cliodhna’s comment and for me personally throughout the next three days I’m solely focused on the game. I don’t like to delve into too many distractions because it could affect our performance and that’s not what I’d like to do."
Fryday's response was was similar, although she endorsed Moloney's right to speak her mind.
"I can't really comment on what Cliodhna has or hasn't said," she said.
"For us as a group, we're very tight knit but we all have our individual thoughts on things.
"For me to comment on what Cliodhna has or hasn't said, it's not really my place.
I think we're entitled to put across what we are feeling or what we think about things, that's just the way life should be. We shouldn't be afraid of saying anything. We have a right to say what we feel."
Both players are investing their faith in the review into the World Cup failure, which is being led by former Wales international Amanda Bennett.
Neither of them have spoken to Bennett, but both intend to contribute.
"I can't speak for the group," Fryday said.
"I can only speak for me. For me, what happened in Parma was hugely disappointing, it's something I would have been working for since the last World Cup. I didn't get the opportunity to play in New Zealand and that was my sole focus, so to not achieve that, it was heartbreaking. We just have to regather and go again.
"I'm putting my trust in the independent review that is being done.
"There is no one thing that led to us not qualifying for the World Cup, so I'm putting my trust in the independent review, that we will feed into it, and that the other issues and factors that led to us not qualifying will come through that.
"At the moment that's all I really have to say because I'm trusting the independent review.
"All of the players involved in the squad, we all have thoughts and opinions so we have a right to share them with the review and that's what we'll be doing.
"We've been focusing on these two matches so I'm presuming it will be whenever the autumn series is finished."
Murphy Crowe said the review would have to wait, but she said the players and management did address the disappointment of Parma when they first came into camp.
“So we sat down together in the first camp and we talked about how everyone is grieving," she said.
"We all want to know how each other feel, we are all teammates and friends at the end of the day and we all want to be there for each other.
“We had a review with our management on the performance side of things. We got learnings from that and we are going to try and sharpen up for these games ahead. To be honest, I don’t think we’ll sit down and talk about what has gone on in the media the last few days.
“As I said, and I don’t want to sound like I’m brushing things away, but we do have a game against a great international side and we have to respect that too. We have to put it up to them and play our game really well.
"I don’t see it as blame, I see it as a failure to qualify for the World Cup. We've got the IRFU's side of it, the players' side of it. There's a review going on, and I think we leave that review there; let it go on.
"For this week, we have the game. Amanda (Bennett) will be in contact with us but, like that, she’s not contacting us in the middle of a prep for an autumn international.
“We’re our own worse critics. I feel so disheartened by some of the performances that I had and decisions I made in games.
"It has hurt me bad but, luckily, as an international player I get to rewrite wrongs this Friday night. I might make a mistake but I am out there again and wearing the Ireland jersey and that’s what makes me so proud and passionate about playing rugby.”