More to come from Ireland after beating Scots - Bemand

The 2026 Women's Six Nations has felt like another significant step forward for a young but talented Ireland side.

A year ago, Scotland caught Ireland cold and claimed a 26-19 victory in Edinburgh.

Fast forward 12 months and Ireland responded with a 54-5 thrashing of Sione Fukofuka's depleted team in Dublin, illustrating ever-growing improvement.

Bemand's side cemented themselves as the best of the rest in third, behind dominant champions England and runners-up France, while also completing the task they set out to achieve this campaign - winning all three of their home games.

Sunday's finale, in front of a record crowd at the Aviva Stadium, will live long in the memory, not only for the history the attendance figures created, but Ireland's sensational first-half demolition of the Scots.

The crowd of 31,294 underlined growing support for the team. If they can continue to produce ruthless displays and get the wins they have in Galway, Belfast and Dublin in this campaign, that spectator number will only get bigger.

Bemand believes that the experience of playing in front of increasingly large crowds will only help his young side as they continue to develop in a new cycle with the next World Cup three years away.

"Playing in front of 77,000 people at Twickenham, then going to Clermont which I've got to say was one of the best rugby experiences in a partisan sense, then we follow it up by having a crowd, a 16th player, here at the Aviva. We're becoming so rich in terms of experiences that we've been through," Bemand said.

"Unbelievable performances, but there's more in them as well. We're growing our wave. I leave here with a sense that there's only more to come."

The Six Nations has been a tournament with plenty of positives for Ireland, who finished with one more win than they managed in 2025. They racked up 14 points, three better than last year and vastly improved their points difference, up from plus five to plus 67.

While they fell to defeats against eventual winners England and a strong France, failing in their World Cup revenge mission, Ireland responded well and channelled frustrations from those games to beat Italy, Wales and the Scots, saving their best performance for last.

Integral to their success has been Erin King, who started all five games after returning from a lengthy period out due to a knee injury.

The 22-year-old captained the side throughout the campaign and led by example, with Bemand keen to praise how she has thrived in the role.

"We spoke about what I've discovered this competition and I think we've probably discovered some sort of superstar captain, who embodies what we want to become," Bemand said.

"She leads from the front and has passion, she wears it on her sleeve. She's becoming massively accomplished already.

"We're getting more layers to ourselves. I think we've kept momentum and in terms of year one of a work cycle, we're exactly where we want to be."

Since taking over as head coach in 2023, Bemand has focused heavily on developing young talent and building depth. That was highlighted by the fact he used 27 players in the campaign including four debutants.

Winger Robyn O'Connor impressed during her first Women's Six Nations, while last year's player of the tournament Aoife Wafer again showed her immense quality, contributing five tries and leading for Ireland in metrics such as carries, metres made, turnovers, offloads and dominant contact and tackles, to name a few.

"We're in a really fortunate position where we've been able to get caps into people without it being wholesale changes," Bemand said.

"We've had new caps but been able to be consistent with selections. Those girls get to come in with a high-functioning group around them.

"We've known about Robyn for a good while and she's a little pocket rocket. I thought she had an excellent game against Scotland."

Next up for Ireland is the inaugural WXV Global Series in the summer which Bemand hopes will prepare his side to break the England/France duopoly in next year's Six Nations.

"Some slightly different challenges, but hopefully it tees us up nicely to come back in 12 months' time and have a crack at England and France."