Edel McMahon says the addition of regular international fixtures outside of the Six Nations is a huge boost as Ireland build towards next year's World Cup.
The team’s journey began 12 months ago when they won the newly inaugurated WXV3 series in Dubai under head coach Scott Bemand, who took the role in August of 2023.
A third-place finish in the Six Nations last spring ensured World Cup qualification and yesterday’s impressive 36-10 win over Australia sets the team up for what will be tougher tests against world champions New Zealand, USA and Canada in WXV1.
Full Tests outside Six Nations and World Cup windows have been sporadic over the years and Ireland skipper McMahon has welcomed a more structured calendar.
"It's huge. It's not even valuable for us, it's valuable for the World Cup," said the Exeter Chiefs flanker.
"It creates an opportunity for international fixtures that teams don't get outside of a Six Nations.
"It forces nations to invest, send their teams away.
"It grows the game and grows the competition. It means you're not getting games in knock-out or pool stages with bonkers scores.
"WX1, 2, 3 is driving teams to be better, to invest in their women's teams, and to create matches so that they're playing regularly.
"For us, it's an opportunity for us to play teams that we're not regularly coming up against and we need to be able to do what we did against Australia."
Despite not having played since April, Bemand’s side hit heights not seen by the international team in years.
Belying their ninth-place ranking against a Wallaroos outfit in fifth, Ireland scored three tries in either half of yesterday’s victory in Belfast.
Cohesion and confidence were notable factors in the performance.
"The mood is really good, there's a good buzz there," said McMahon, who also featured for Connacht in the recent Interpros.
"The hunger has been there since we came in, the confidence has come off the back of the Six Nations.
"We've come into camp and since Dubai, it's a player-coach relationship.
"When I'm speaking freely, we're having our voices heard.
"Things that we need to tweak, as players we need to own our own game as well.
"This buddy system, trying to be a team, but also striving to be the best athlete we can be for this jersey is what we're really going after.
"It's easy to speak freely when we have voices that are heard."
New Zealand, beaten 24-12 by England on Saturday, are Ireland’s next opponents on 29 September and player of the match Aoife Wafer (below) says she can’t wait to test herself against one of the world’s top teams.
"It's a really exciting place to go into that off the back of today," said the 21-year-old Wexford woman, who scored two tries on her eighth cap.
"We're going in and playing the top teams in the world and that's what we want to do.
"To be the best, you have to play the best. To get that opportunity in a World Cup year is absolutely brilliant, and we wouldn't want it any other way
"We were chatting earlier in the week and there's only Clíodhna [Moloney] and Nic [Fowley] have played against [New Zealand, in 2016] .
"We've a relatively new squad in that sense but everyone will be hungry for it."
McMahon, meanwhile, says the team can’t afford to live off the win in Belfast and must push on.
"That's the pressure now," she said.
"We need to start driving that. We're happy with that performance but we want to be better than that again."
Ireland's WXV1 fixtures:
Sunday, 29 September, New Zealand v Ireland, in BC Place (3am Irish time)
Saturday, 5 October, Canada v Ireland, in Langley Events Centre (11.45pm Irish time)
Friday, 11 October, USA v Ireland, BC Place (8.30pm Irish time)
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