Eve Higgins

And while there were brilliant moments in attack from the hosts, the Americans brought a physicality that Ireland just couldn't deal with today.

Early tries from Vicky Alms-Kinlan, Cliona Maloney-McDonalds and Aoife Wafer gave Ireland a 17-point cushion after 20 minutes, with Eve Higgins scoring a fourth 10 minutes from the break.

But the warning signs were there when co-captain Georgie Peres-Reading scored from short range for the visitors, The American Fords led by loose head Hope Rogers brought so much firepower which Ireland really struggled to deal with, coughing up penalties and scores.

It was 24-12 at half time, Captain Aaron King diving over the top of the ruck to score early in the second half to open up a 19 point lead.

But, you know, we should be able to hold off at least not letting three tries in that 10 minutes, which is not great.

Aaron King there as well, you know, captains... try after restart it looked like that was the end for the USA so a fantastic try from her as well the TMO had to actually go and kind of call it back but she went over to reference and said no I definitely put that down and she did absolutely flew in over the top there to put it down and look she even came out with a post match interview there and she was very disappointed so it's hard to watch the players that you really love come out and look devastated but it builds composure you know better off losing them now than in the world cup we often say that i've said it numerous times valencer i'd rather them you know really get hammered and come on for the big games and just do great but last and at least they're eve higgins inside center there you know a perfect try before halftime uh very good part of our attacking spell yeah and look it's part of the lens for heavy backline so yeah fantastic um you know the going over the referee there yeah look it's a high scoring she didn't really stop to play all that much uh the card obviously very very much affected us but it was right there was nothing in it that you could say vicky elms killing shouldn't have got that sanction so yeah we have a lot to look forward to a lot to look back on but in a line look toppled in tala but the land of the rising sun will definitely set in the west next week though All right, folks, match events real quick here.

At halftime, the score is 24-12, and at full-time, the score was 36-40.

Player to match here was Frida Tufuna, as I said already, but let's get into it.

No, actually, that was also, unfortunately, not successful.

Next stop, Jesus, Butcher Devon.

25th minute then first try for USA Georgie Paris Redding co-captain mind you and she powered over there and yeah it was you know the first USA response before Ireland surged again little spoiler there but that brought score to 17-7 32nd minute then Ireland Eve Higgins so Anna McGann's instant impact off eventually set Higgins up because Dalton was offered HIA and that was successfully converted and By Dan O'Brien.

Jesus Christ.

Now last week I caught up with a number of Ireland players out at the High Performance Centre in Abbottstown.

Lots of really great discussions here with the likes of Eve Higgins, Anna McGann, that uncapped player Beth Buttermer and Robin O'Connor who took the Six Nations by storm this year.

But first up, here's just a snippet of my chat with Ireland captain Erin King.

She got her first Leinster cap in the recent Interpro series.

So yeah, looking forward to playing all over Ireland.

Ireland captain Erin King there.

Now, I was also speaking to Eve Higgins and Anna McGann and Higgins was out with the Ireland women's sevens at the Rugby Europe sevens in Croatia during the summer, which they won.

Great result for them.

the standings going into this tournament, we are higher than the other teams and I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we weren't going out to win these five, four games coming up and putting on performances that we're proud of and getting crowds to the stadiums like we did in Six Nations and just continuing to grow our green wave in that regard and then leading into Six Nations hopefully doing one up from what we did last year and maybe getting second place.

So there's literally tons more coming from the likes of Eve Higgins, Anna McGann, Robin O'Connor and Beth Buttermer across Off The Ball social channels and right here in the OTB Rugby podcast feed over the next few days.

It's well worth keeping an eye out for that.

Of course, the best way to stay in the loop with all of our rugby coverage is by going over to offtheball.com forward slash join and becoming a member right now.

They need to get it wide.

Chiz Maguero sits down she's got Eve Higgins to her right she's on the left wing she's got Eve Higgins to her right she's got Robin O'Connor to her left she trusts Eve Higgins is going to make that pass and I'm going to make the tackle she does it she puts O'Connor in touch O'Connor's been Leinster's best player there's no two ways around it she's been Leinster's best player But when the moment mattered, Munster came up with the defensive goods.

Time and time again.

And you can talk about territory.

Unfortunate, but Robin O'Connor is a fantastic player and one that I have, over this championship, named out time and time and time again.

And then last but not least, Eve Higgins.

Absolutely brilliant at a breakdown turnover.

so good the Jacqueline by Eve Higgins is just stellar it's just chef's kiss amazing you know one of the bright sparks honestly in the back line of all that very dull day down in Galway um but yeah it's just unfortunate she didn't get over the line herself and she had a potential to as well had a couple of urgent opportunities there well more assists than anything but yeah Eve Higgins is a fantastic player and one definitely is not a player there for Leinster But yeah, that was it.

You know, in the line I suppose it was the Munster Mall that won the championship again.

Yeah, won round one and won the final, won round one and won the final round as well.

On the wing, we have Vicky Elms-Kinlan.

Number 12 there, we have Eve Higgins.

Outside center, we have Aoife Dalton.

Number 14, we have Robin O'Connor.