Women's

Player of the Match Flood hails ‘Irish fight’ after victory over Italy

Flood 2000 (1)
Stacey Flood hailed the ‘Irish fight’ which helped her side overcome Italy 25-5 and secure third place in the Women’s Six Nations.

Stacey Flood hailed the ‘Irish fight’ which helped her side overcome Italy 25-5 and secure third place in the Women’s Six Nations.

Flood finished her first international 15-a-side start with the Player of the Match prize after pulling the strings at fly-half throughout the 80 minutes at Energia Park and adding five points with the boot.

The 24-year-old admitted Ireland were not at their absolute best in Dublin but believes their determination shone through when it mattered.

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“We are delighted with the win,” she said. “The team has worked so hard.

“I don’t think we put in our best performance out there but it was a really big team effort.

“We showed a lot of that Irish fight and some of that goal-line ‘D’ (defence) shows how much we want to give it our all.

“To finish on a win is really good and we’ve a lot to take from that game, good and bad, so we’ll get straight back on it.”

Flood’s 28th-minute penalty stretched Ireland’s lead to 8-0 in the Finals Day opener following Dorothy Wall’s try in a first period short of chances.

The game opened up after the break and Amee Leigh Murphy-Crowe marked her own first Championship start with a brace either side of Cliodhna Moloney’s second score in as many weeks.

Flood and Murphy-Crowe are two of several Ireland sevens stars who have made their mark in the 15s format in recent months and the former credited her teammates with helping make the switch a smooth one.

“It has been a great experience,” she said. “I have learned so much in this last three weeks of rugby and in the last few camps as well.

“All the girls have been so helpful and it’s so much easier to come into a squad when there’s such a good culture.

“There is more to build on and get the ball rolling on, which we’ll look forward to.”