Day 1 Touch Euros 2016, Jersey

Game 1 vs the hosts Jersey. Won 9-4.

Game 2 vs France. Lost 8-7.

Game 3 vs Wales. Won 9-7.

I scored 2 tries.

Those are the facts of how the day went. Doesn’t seem bad. 2 out of 3. And i suppose it’s not bad. I mean, looking back a few years, I lost in every one of my first ten internationals… But still. My feeling, and the feeling of a lot of my teammates I think, was… meh. Sometimes, it’s hard to shake that McKaylay Moroney feeling don’t you know.

We could have been better. We should have won that second game against France. We were 7-4 up and faded badly in the second half. We faded again in the second half against Wales even though we won.

There’s reasons I suppose. That French game. We were down two male players in the subs rotation which has an impact on energy levels, first day playing in hot midday sun, haven’t played many 40 minute games together as a team.

Roy Keane commenting on Wales vs Portugal in the football Euros last night – “Yeah, they showed great spirit to fight after they were 2-0 down… but that’s a cop out really”

Seems unduly harsh but I think I know what he means. You have to fight just as hard before you go down. In a way that is sometimes harder because you have the weight of the possibility of winning on your shoulders.

And by that logic, those reasons above are a bit of cop out. We still should have won…

So although I’m a bit subdued tonight, first thing in the morning we have England. Beat them, the whole tournament opens up for us. My personal focus for tomorrow apart from better skills execution, better defence and better attack, is bloody mindedness. Embrace the pressure of winning and refuse to be beaten. Impose our will on the other team. That’s what winning teams do.

No match footage yet. Will hopefully have some for tomorrow but some if you desperately need some action footage of me…

I’m doing some seriously good clapping on for the Irish Womens 27s team. (in the hat at the end.)  Perfect technique.

By the way, on the other side of all the above, anybody who was watching us play today all thought we’re playing great.

And as another by the way, the sun is shining, Jersey is beautiful and although I haven’t seen him yet, I’m constantly on the lookout for Bergerac.

50th cap for Claire in first game vs Jersey

End of day team recovery session in the sea – Declan, Deanna, Eoin, Tania.