WITH HER LEFT hand, Niamh Briggs has a solid hold on a banister as she hobbles down one step at a time. An offer comes to free her right hand of a considerable weight, but she declines.
Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
The Six Nations trophy is firmly in her grasp and she’s damned if anyone less deserving is going to carry it out into the fresh air.
About 22 hours previously, Ireland’s captain was in similarly defiant mood after a brief stint of treatment to her knee. Despite wincing throughout the remainder of the half and the game, Briggs wasn’t about to let herself be taken out of the game.
“No. Definitely not,” the fullback says categorically, “I think when you win matches and trophies and Championships like we did yesterday, any injury seems irrelevant until it all settles down.
Ireland went in to this weekend trailing the Championship leaders France – the only side to beat them this year – by a points difference of 20. even before Les Bleus took a 15 -21 win from Twickenham, Saturday provided ample opportunity for distractions.
Instead of getting side-tracked by the men’s game, Briggs and her squad took inspiration from the way deficits were hoovered up, though the captain herself was busy getting kicking practice in while the action was under way in Murrayfield.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
“It was kind of bizarre, because in the Wales-Italy match,Wales were all over the shop and they were very jittery, but they managed to come out second half and blow it out of the water. That’s what we were saying to the girls:’look, if the scores don’t come in the first 40-60 minutes, it’s okay.’”
The scores did come in the first 40 and everything was more than just okay. Ireland relentlessly kept a foot on Scotland’s throat and took away try after try to end with a record points haul for Ireland Women.