‘Scotland is must-win to salvage Ireland’s season’

So after a difficult campaign, it all comes down to the last fixture.

They must win to get into a play-off against Spain for tier two – and if they lose they’ll go into tier three and be stuck there for the next two years.

That is going to dictate the direction women’s rugby in Ireland goes for the next two years. It all boils down to this.

Basically the outcome will determine the quality of opposition we face for the next two years.

We want to play teams of the same and higher calibre than us, otherwise you’re playing catch-up.

Scotland’s win over Italy at the weekend has increased the pressure on Ireland, who now must beat Scotland by a high margin.

Ireland need to win with a bonus point and have to hope Wales beat Italy to get a place in the fifth place play-off against Spain.

Scoring four tries away to Scotland is never going to be easy but it is a target Ireland need to set themselves if they want to keep hopes of WXV2 rugby alive.

Best display yet

It might seem like an odd thing to say when you’ve just lost 48-0, but I actually think Ireland’s defeat by England was their best performance of the Six Nations so far.

There is something about England that brings out the best in Irish teams, the rivalry is so fierce and always will be.

Ireland used it as fuel and used it in the right way.

They forced England to make unforced errors and it was the lowest score they have accumulated in this Six Nations.

Marlie Packer going off injured changed things. England look to her as a leader and she was dominating the breakdown and clearing out the Irish threats.

In her absence suddenly Ireland were getting hands on the ball and slowing down the English breakdown so that was a big turning point in the game.

Ireland forced England to commit more to the breakdown to get clean ball.

80% of England’s ruck speed in this campaign has been under three seconds. Ireland forced England to play with slightly slower ball than they’re used to and ended up forcing last passes to make space.

Ireland will look to bring that breakdown work into Scotland this week. It’s attritional but also very effective.

‘A bit disrespectful’

I noted Bernard Jackman’s comments in the build-up suggesting England’s superior conditioning and physicality could make the game unsafe for Ireland players.

I thought that was a bit disrespectful to be honest.

The Irish girls are all athletes and are going out to represent their country.

Would he have said that if Ireland men were playing a lower-ranked team? Was it unsafe when Ireland men’s teams were being well beaten by New Zealand in the 2000’s?

I don’t think so. It wasn’t used as an excuse then and it shouldn’t be now either.

Obviously England are conditioned, they are experienced, they had players with just three or four caps who looked like seasoned internationals because of the feeder system coming through via the Premier 15.

Morwenna Talling came on for Packer and scored a try with her first touch seconds after coming on. That’s the kind of strength in depth England have and hopefully in time Ireland will benefit from a clear grassroots structure too.

Once again the home crowd were brilliant and the Ireland fans are sticking with this team.

A lot of the credit for the performance has to go down to the captain Nichola Fryday and other senior players like Sam Monaghan for keeping this such a tight-knit group.

They have been able to avoid the outside noise and focus on the task in hand.

In the past they may have got distracted by media reports online and so on and used that as motivation, but the senior players are now driving that togetherness and unity and it’s good to see.

Ciara Griffin was speaking to BBC Sport NI’s Orla Bannon.