Carla Ward says that this Irish group are ‘an absolute joy to work with’ that shows ‘resilience’, ‘character’ and ‘togetherness’.
On Friday night, Ireland beat Netherlands 3-2 in a statement victory that saw them leapfrog the Dutch into second place in the group. That means that victory in Grenoble against France would see Ireland qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next year.
Carla Ward, the Ireland head coach who masterminded the famous win spoke to the media post match and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
Ward praises Cork crowd that ‘played a big part’ in historic victory
Ward was asked for her initial reaction after the breathless encounter that saw Amber Barrett score late to secure victory,
“Unbelievable” Ward said simply. “It’s funny because I know I say it but I believe in this team. I say it all the time to the players.”
Ireland kept up their incredible record at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, with a third win in three visits,
“Yeah, we love coming to Cork” beamed Ward. “Cork loves us coming down here I think. Listen, they make a lot of noise and it massively helps us.
“I spoke about that this morning in the team meeting around really using them because they can play a big part and they did tonight.”
Carla Ward lauds ‘quality’ Abbie Larkin
Ireland had held the lead for 51 minutes before Dominque Janssen levelled from the spot for Netherlands. Less than a minutes later, Ireland were on level terms. Ward was asked to comment on the Irish mentality,
“Listen, this group is resilient” Ward asserted. “It’s got character. Everybody, we’re tight, we’re together, we talk about it all the time.
“We have a mentality where you look right, you look left, you look ahead, and you know that everyone’s got each other’s backs. You’ve got to live and die for each other and that goes for the staff and the players. We’ve got an incredible group.”
The Ireland player of the match on the night was Abbie Larkin. The Crystal Palace forward assisted the opener and scored the second. The Halfway Line asked Ward about Larkin’s impact,
“I like Larko and I tell her all the time that she doesn’t know how good she is. I tell them all that, to be fair” Ward extolled. “Abbie [Larkin] has an abundance of quality and pace but sometimes doesn’t give herself enough credit.
“I told her that when she came off because she was buzzing. I think everyone’s delighted for each other.”
Irish squad were ‘fantastic’ in upset victory says Carla Ward
Prior to the match Ireland knew that they would be without both Denise O’Sullivan and Emily Murphy, two star performers of qualification so far. Ward was asked how she got the performance out of the side and their replacements,
“Yeah, we had two plans” Ward explained. “One for the first half. We knew that we were going to play Ruesha [Littlejohn] till halftime. We knew that we were going to take Ruesha off at half-time, finish with Jess Ziu for the second half.
“So they’re slightly different, well very different players, with slightly different ways of playing. So we knew that, you know, if we’re still in the game at half-time, then we’ve got a chance to be a little bit more aggressive in the second half, but play with the ball a little bit more.
“Look, the girls were fantastic tonight, every single one of them. And I think it’s a credit to them. Having Denise [O’Sullivan] and Murph [Emily Murphy] back for Tuesday will be absolutely huge.”
Carla Ward lauds Ireland ‘culture’ within the camp
After a victory precious few in the international football world saw coming, Ward was asked if she believes that Ireland can beat the French and qualify for the World Cup,
“Did you see that tonight?!” Ward asked incredulously. “This group has, as I said, a resilience, a character, but most importantly, a togetherness.
“We have a culture built on a family unit. It might sound cliché, but it is. I tell them all the time, you know, we look after each other. And I said to him in the huddle before we went out, your team-mate misses a tackle, the next one takes one for the team.
“You back each other up and you look after each other. And they do that. They are an absolute joy to work with this group.
“Yes [We can win]. I told you that back at the Aviva, I said we can. And let me tell you now, I tell them every day they can. They can play against anyone, they can compete against anyone.
“They’ve showed that tonight. Yeah. Well look, Netherlands are top 10 in the world and look what we’ve done tonight.”
Ward heaps praise on ‘super sub’ Amber Barrett
Amber Barrett spoke during the week about wanting to shed the tag of super sub. Barrett came off the bench to score the winner, Ward saw the funny side,
“It’s great, isn’t it? Super sub Amber Barrett” Ward said ask a mischievous grin found a home on her face. “I said that to her then. She was disappointed not to start, and rightly so. I like that.
“She said to me at the end, ‘I told ya!’ I said, ‘No, I told you. I told you you were gonna come on and win us the game.’ They all understand this is all for the team, but she’s done tremendously well. She was the super-sub tonight, wasn’t she? They all were, to be fair.”
Ward’s call to Littlejohn ‘give me everything you have for 45 minutes’
The Halfway Line asked Ward when she made the decision to start Ruesha Littlejohn. Whether she knew right after O’Sullivan picked up the booking against Poland,
“No, I didn’t” affirmed Ward. “Ruesha, you always know what you’re gonna get, but this, when she turned up to camp, I think this is the sharpest Russia we’ve seen in quite some time.
“She’s been training extremely hard. I know who she’s been training with, so I knew she was going to come in good shape, but she’s been.. yeah, she’s been training really hard, and I think that showed, and I don’t know how she is yet.
“I’ll be honest, and you don’t.. I don’t ever get to see anyone after the game, because all I’m doing different bits of media, but we’ll check in [with her] tomorrow morning to see where they’re at.”
Ward was asked about the faith she has shown in Littlejohn,
“Yeah. First of all, she’s trained so well this week” Ward said. “She leads in a way, you see it tonight, she pulls people around, she guides, she directs.
“I take my hat off to her, I said to her, ‘Give me everything for 45 minutes.’ We knew we were going to change her then cause she’s had limited minutes, but she did well.
“Jess Ziu came on and did really well as well. Ruesha is a top, top pro, I talk about her all the time. To have her in your environment is critical.”
