So final game in our pool arrived and we were chomping at the bit at the challenge. We had a 4.30 kick off again which has been a bit of a routine now, so everyone stayed close to their schedule in the morning for superstitions sake or just cause! We got the most unreal news ever the night before that Declan Kidney was travelling over to see our game today. Oh holy god, how excited were we!
The man is a legend of course but the sheer fact of him being interested enough to come all the way over for our game alone, just blew us all away. It really put a spring in everyone’s step. Our support here has been out of this world, the support from back home has been inspirational and then to be told of a gesture like that from such an important and well respected man in Irish rugby, made us feel so proud of ourselves, so special and by god did it make us believe!!!
The Kazakhstan girls are big girls, we knew it was going to be a physical game in tight if we played there. Also, our pack have had two physical up front games in the first two pool games so we had planned to play more open rugby. We scored in the first few minutes which set the tone. Although we scored a good lot of tries for the rest of the game, Kazakhstan fought hard in every ruck which slowed our ball down and their changing defence made us have to think on our toes. We won the game 37.3 but it wasn’t enough to secure our place in the semis. France beat Canada and Australia beat South Africa by enough points for them to qualify for the semis, putting us in 6th position. We now meet USA again to play on Wednesday.
We all had a nice day off today and spent it with families and friends. Down played Kildare in semis of Gaelic football so a few of the girls went to London to watch that. We’re helping the kiwis make a cultural clip for their squad, so we’ve to teach them the walls of limerick Irish dance. In return we’ve requested some fast twitch fibres. Fair trade! Others stayed in for recovery and sleep. Looking forward to training again tomorrow to tweak a few things from the Kazakhstan game and prepare for the USA. We’ve a few bones/teeth to pick with the US after our last game so can not wait!!!
