Our review of Ireland Women’s performance in the 2021 Six Nations continues. In Part 1 we had a look at the general trends by Province and club, in Part 2 we will have a look at some of the outstanding individual performances.
Players Used
To recap, Ireland used 27 players over the three games. Five players, Eve Higgins, Emily Lane, Stacey Flood, Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe and Grace Moore, made their International XVs debut, all coming from the International 7s Programme.
Thanks to the statistics now supplied by the Six Nations we are now able to look at different criteria for the player’s performances. You can view the summery in the web story below or read on for more details.
Who did What?
Minutes Played
The stats account for 3,596 minutes out of a maximum total of 3,600 minutes played over the 3 games. There was one yellow card which would give Ireland 3,590 minutes to account for. We are assuming the extra 6 minutes is coming from rounding up individuals minutes played during substitutions etc.
The Top Six players for minutes played are shown below. Blackrock’s Dorothy Wall is the only player to play every minute of every game. Sene Naoupu would have equalled Wall’s total if she hadn’t been yellow carded.
Railway Union’s Higgins made an instant impact in her debut series, playing all but 6 minutes of her first three games.
| PLAYER | MINUTES |
|---|---|
| Dorothy Wall | 240 |
| Eve Higgins | 234 |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 |
| Beibhinn Parsons | 221 |
| Nichola Fryday | 218 |
Points Scored
Ireland scored 85 points over the three games, the points coming from 13 tries, 7 conversions (54% conversion rate) and 2 penalties.
Blackrock’s Hannah Tyrrell was the leading scorer with 18 points coming from 1 try, 5 conversions and 1 penalty. All Ireland’s scorers from the campaign are shown below.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | TRIES | CONS | PENS | TOTAL POINTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hannah Tyrrell | 154 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 18 |
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Beibhinn Parsons | 221 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Cliodhna Moloney | 193 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe | 102 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Stacey Flood | 134 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Emma Hooban | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| TOTAL | – | 13 | 7 | 2 | 85 |
Wall, Eimear Considine, Beibhinn Parsons, Cliodhna Moloney and Murphy Crowe topped the try scoring stakes with a brace each but our Top Try Scorer ranking goes to Murphy Crowe who grabbed her brace in the shortest time played.
Shout out to Emma Hooban who crossed for her try with only 22 minutes pitch time.
Try Assists
With 9 tries there are also 9 try assists and one player, Katheryn Dane, sent one third of the players over the line which puts the Ulster scrum half top the Try Assists table.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | ASSISTS |
|---|---|---|
| Kathryn Dane | 181 | 3 |
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 1 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 | 1 |
| Aoife McDermott | 184 | 1 |
| Hannah Tyrrell | 154 | 1 |
| Stacey Flood | 134 | 1 |
| Laura Feely | 50 | 1 |
Meters Carried
718
IRELAND
604
OPPOSITION
Ireland did try to use their speedsters out wide and wingers Parsons and Murphy Crowe topped the meters per carry table, with full back Considine not far behind. Parsons carried for the Most Metres and Wall had the Most Carries, carving out the hard yards in the heavy traffic up front.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | METERS | CARRIES | METERS PER CARRY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beibhinn Parsons | 221 | 309 | 23 | 13.4 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 | 197 | 19 | 10.4 |
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 178 | 38 | 4.7 |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 | 177 | 30 | 5.9 |
| Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe | 102 | 150 | 12 | 12.5 |
| Eve Higgins | 234 | 138 | 18 | 7.7 |
Offloads
17
IRELAND
20
OPPOSITION
Ireland averaged just under 6 offloads per game but I wish they would embrace the risk/rewards of this part of the game more.
Lindsay Peat led the way with three and is the only player to average one offload per game. However, with the speedsters Ireland have in the back three it really is an option they should be trying to develop further.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | OFFLOADS |
|---|---|---|
| Lindsay Peat | 181 | 3 |
| Beibhinn Parsons | 221 | 2 |
| Aoife McDermott | 184 | 2 |
| Emily Lane | 62 | 2 |
| Eve Higgins | 234 | 1 |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 | 1 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 | 1 |
| Kathryn Dane | 181 | 1 |
| Hannah Tyrrell | 154 | 1 |
| Brittany Hogan | 135 | 1 |
| Stacey Flood | 134 | 1 |
| Laura Feely | 50 | 1 |
Tackles Completed
328
IRELAND
82.2% TACKLE SUCCESS
284
OPPOSITION
84.5% TACKLE SUCCESS
Ireland completed 328 tackles out of a total of 399 attempts for a 82.2% tackle success rate over the series. However, their tackle rates were around 90% against Wales and Italy but dropped to 70% against France who broke up the structured game that Ireland are happiest playing.
Wall competed the most tackles with 29 completed from 33 attempts but it’s Naoupu who is our Top Tackler with a 100% success rate from 27 attempts – though there was one over-exuberant attempt which fell out of the classification, going straight to penalty offence.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | TACKLES MADE | MISSED TACKLES | TACKLE SUCCESS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 29 | 4 | 88% |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 | 27 | 0 | 100% |
| Cliodhna Moloney | 193 | 18 | 3 | 86% |
| Brittany Hogan | 135 | 18 | 4 | 82% |
| Linda Djougang | 193 | 16 | 5 | 76% |
| Aoife McDermott | 184 | 15 | 1 | 94% |
Turnovers Won
16
WON
40
CONCEDED
As the game has become more physical, more structured and more predictable in recent years the turnover has become more important. Ireland competed 16 turnovers over the three games and conceded 40. It seems to be an Irish problem with the men producing similar figures in their Six Nations.
Flood brought her 7s experience to the fore to complete 4 Turnovers Won.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | TURNOVERS WON | TURNOVERS CONCEDED | NET TURNOVERS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stacey Flood | 134 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Nichola Fryday | 218 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Aoife McDermott | 184 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Claire Molloy | 134 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Ciara Griffin | 156 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hannah O’Connor | 113 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe | 102 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Handling Errors
56
IRELAND
52
OPPOSITION
Ireland made a total of 56 handling errors over the three games which averages out as a couple more than their opponents per game. Unsurprisingly the scrum halves Dane and Lane top this category which generally reflective of the involvement of the various positions.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | HANDLING ERRORS |
|---|---|---|
| Kathryn Dane | 181 | 8 |
| Emily Lane | 62 | 8 |
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 6 |
| Stacey Flood | 134 | 6 |
| Eve Higgins | 234 | 4 |
| Eimear Considine | 223 | 3 |
| Lindsay Peat | 181 | 3 |
| Hannah Tyrrell | 154 | 3 |
| Brittany Hogan | 135 | 3 |
Penalties Conceded
44
IRELAND
41
OPPOSITION
Ireland conceded an average of just under 15 penalties per game which is one more per game than the opposition. With Ireland struggling to get to grips with their scrum technique in general it’s no surprise that front rowers Moloney and Peat are topping the charts here.
| PLAYER | MINS PLAYED | PENS CONCEDED |
|---|---|---|
| Cliodhna Moloney | 193 | 6 |
| Lindsay Peat | 181 | 6 |
| Nichola Fryday | 218 | 4 |
| Linda Djougang | 193 | 4 |
| Dorothy Wall | 240 | 3 |
| Sene Naoupu | 230 | 3 |
| Ciara Griffin | 156 | 3 |
| Laura Feely | 50 | 3 |