An intense training session with France earlier this week was ‘really useful’ for the Ireland squad and Number 8 Brittany Hogan as both sides prepare for the WXV1 in Vancouver.
Ireland make the step up to the top tier thanks to their third place finish in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations. They’ll face World Champions New Zealand in the first game, followed by host country Canada and then USA.
Hogan was pleased with the step up in training and the challenge it posed:
“We had a good blowout in the Canadian rain but it was good to put into action on the pitch what we’d walked through in our meetings. It was very valuable to us to see that come to fruition.
“When you’re training against each other we all know the plays so to have a team that has no idea what we’re doing was really valuable”