Past and present Ireland internationals have publicly rebuked the suggestion by IRFU women's rugby director Anthony Eddy that the 15-a-side game had not been overlooked in the country in recent years.

Eddy, who oversees both sevens and XVs women's programs, said both had received "a lot" of resources in recent years and refuted the suggestion that the sevens set-up has been prioritised.

"I don't think either programme has been favoured," he said.

"Because of our small playing numbers and small talent pool, we have to share resources across both programmes. People who think one programme is being favoured over another, I would clearly say they're wrong."

This has been met with anger by players, with hooker Cliodhna Moloney - currently in the Ireland camp preparing for Friday's Test against the USA - likening the comments to "slurry spreading".

Former captain Claire Molloy, who retired from international duty after Ireland's loss to Scotland ended their World Cup hopes, also criticised what she described as "truly disheartening and disappointing" remarks.

Ireland's fortunes have been trending downwards for several years. Having won a Grand Slam in 2013, reached the World Cup semi-finals a year later before winning the Six Nations again in 2015, in recent years they have fallen down the pecking order in the northern hemisphere and are well behind England and France.

Currently only sevens players are contracted to the IRFU with some of those also representing the 15-a-side team, but no female players in Ireland are professionally contracted to exclusively play 15-a-side.

"We'll look at other opportunities to contract players," Eddy said earlier this week.

"There are players that are still in our programme who are on development pathways, whether it's sevens or XVs. Some of those players will be front and centre in both forms of the game and will be utilised by [incoming head coach] Greg Williams over the coming years as well."