Ireland claim bonus point win over Spain to book World Cup quarter-final place

IRELAND secured their passage into the quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup with a game to spare following their exciting 43-27 bonus point win over Spain at Franklins Gardens, Northampton on Sunday.

Ireland's second group win coupled with New Zealand's bonus-point victory against Japan, means Ireland and the Black Ferns will advance from Pool C to the last eight stage of the competition.

READ NEXT: Munster rack up magnificent seven in sizzling Women’s Interprovincial final success

The group winners will be decided by next Sunday's meeting between the top two in Brighton, 2.45pm kick-off.

Ireland were forced to dig deep to subdue underdog opponents positioned outside the top 10 in the global rankings, with Spain matching the determination and ability shown by Japan.

But once again resolute Ireland had the tools to get the job done, with number eight Grace Moore and wing Anna McGann touching down twice each in a bonus-point win that secures their place in the quarter-finals.

Afterwards Ireland coach Scott Bemand insisted his team are ready for tougher tests after reaching the World Cup quarter-finals.

“To get a bonus-point win – at the start of the day I would have bit your hand off for that,” Bemand said.

“Getting into a World Cup quarter-final was something we wanted to achieve and we wanted to achieve it at the first possible chance, so two games in.

“The group are buzzing and we’ve just been told it’s the most points Ireland have ever scored at a World Cup – and it’s only game two.

“The longer you go in this competition, the media, the fan base – everything magnifies. It’s exactly where we want to be.

“All roads lead to Brighton now and we want to go and challenge a World Cup contender.

“Part of our growth is that we want to fire more shots, we want to take games against the World Cup contenders deeper.

“This win against Spain will be a massive game for us just in terms of continuing momentum. I’m sure anybody that plays us will take us seriously.

“That’s a good place for us to be and we’re just going to keep getting a bit better and a bit better.”

Spain excelled at times and, like Japan a week before them, took charge early in the third quarter to cause Ireland real trouble – only for the favourites to find the skill and resilience needed to close out victory.

“It won’t always be perfect, unfortunately, and there are going to be some edge-of-the-seat moments but that’s the beauty of women’s rugby,” Bemand said.

“But what we are doing now, we’re scoring tries and we’re creating in a variety of ways, so we’re creating different problems for people to solve.

“We’ve never professed to be the finished article, but scoring seven tries shows that we’ve got some firepower and some tools that we can call upon.

“It’s now about calling upon them consistently and more in the right spaces, which will let us go longer and deeper into these games.”

IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC); Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC/Connacht), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC), Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union RFC/Munster); Dannah O'Brien (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Molly Scuffil-McCabe (Manawatū RFC/Leinster); Ellena Perry (Gloucester-Hartpury/IQ Rugby), Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Eimear Corri Fallon (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster), Sam Monaghan (Gloucester-Hartpury/IQ Rugby), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Claire Boles (Railway Union RFC/Ulster), Grace Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby). Replacements: Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), Siobhán McCarthy (Railway Union RFC/Munster), Sadhbh McGrath (Cooke RFC/Ulster), Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC), Enya Breen (Blackrock College RFC/Munster), Nancy McGillivray (Exeter Chiefs/IQ Rugby).