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Jasmine Joyce column: The boos and the buzz of winning in Ireland

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Published in Rugby
Thursday, 31 March 2022 01:16

In her latest BBC Sport column, Olympic sevens star and Wales wing Jasmine Joyce talks about Irish boos and the buzz of winning in Dublin, mannequins showing up in training and setting down a marker against World Cup rivals Scotland.

The win against Ireland was massive for us, especially with it being out in Dublin.

The coaches had not put any pressure on us, but individually as players we put pressure on ourselves to go out and perform, especially now 12 of us have full-time contracts.

I know it is a cliché, but it really was a game of two halves.

In the first half we were not clinical or dominant enough, but after the break we came out a different team.

I spoke last week about how we had dropped off in the last 20 minutes during the autumn internationals, but credit to the coaches and players, who have worked hard on their fitness so we could put in a full 80-minute performance.

I know we were behind for most of the game, but I genuinely went through it thinking we were going to win it. There is a collective belief now that we can go out and win.

That was not there in the last couple of Six Nations tournaments - you almost dreaded going into a game, it was kind of like 'here we go again'.

Credit to the 'finishers'

It feels different now and we have so much strength in depth as well. We just do not know who is going to start and who is going to finish a game, but that is a good thing, it brings the best out in players.

The replacements showed their quality in that second half and I have to give a shout out to Donna Rose, who came off the bench and scored two tries, that is a prop's dream!

The changing room was bouncing afterwards, we were all in a circle singing and dancing to Proud Mary, one of our favourites.

We got back to the hotel and the coaches were super chilled. They let us have a couple of beers, but it is a short turnaround to Scotland so we did not go wild.

We are addicted to this game called Mafia - you have a few killers, a doctor and a sheriff, it is hard to explain, but we play it every day. We have got a leader board, Alisha [Butchers] and Cerys [Hale] are top at the moment.

It's something silly, but we love one another's company.

Mannequin challenge

Personally to get a try and for Alisha [Joyce's fiancée] to get player of the match, it made for a very happy household.

Alisha puts a lot of pressure on herself because the competition in the back row is unreal. You have got people like Bethan Lewis, Sioned Harris and Sisilia Tuipulotu on the bench, who are all more than good enough to start.

When we get player of the match we sign a jersey and we came in on Tuesday morning and that jersey was on a mannequin with Alisha's face on it, it was hilarious.

I'm guessing it was Ioan [Cunningham] or one of the coaches who had done it. It is the little things that go a long way with us.

Ioan does a defensive king - or queen I should say - and every week he picks a player from each game and they get to wear a different bib all training session. They are big on crediting people's performances.

Boos and the challenge of the Scots

I have to say the atmosphere at the RDS was amazing. They did boo quite a bit which was not ideal, but some of the players thrived on that.

Last year there was no way we would have had 6,000-plus people in a stadium, but this year we are getting so much support, so much media and publicity with it being a standalone tournament.

It looks like we will have a really good crowd against Scotland, maybe even a record crowd for a standalone women's game which would be awesome. It is going to be bouncing at Cardiff Arms Park.

We are all prepped and ready to go for Scotland. We still have the excitement from the weekend, but also some nerves now as Scotland is a massive game.

If we can come away with a win, that will be two of the three games we have targeted wins in.

Scotland are coming off the back of a heavy defeat against England, but they are going to be coming with confidence having qualified for the World Cup.

We have got them in our pool so they are going to want to prove a point on our home turf, and they have been together pretty much all season because they have had their qualifiers.

They have a lot of girls playing in the Premiership, so it is going be a big challenge, but it is one we are totally up for.

Jasmine Joyce was speaking to BBC Sport Wales' Ceri Coleman-Phillips.

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