Despite the IRFU stating during the women's World Cup last August that a new Ireland coaching team would be in place a month after the tournament, no appointments have been made.
Last season's coach Philip Doyle informed the union in March he would be stepping down. Team manager Gemma Crowley took up a job with Rugby World Cup 2015, assistant coach Greg McWilliams has since become director of rugby at Yale University and conditioning coach Marian Earls was recruited by Connacht.
"We don't have a coach yet but the girls have got together and spoken about winning another championship," said Jenny Murphy yesterday, speaking in her capacity as mentor for the Sky Sports Living for Sport programme.
In 2013 both England and France were beaten at Ashbourne RFC, where they are expected again next year.
Of the world cup squad, Murphy along with wingers Ashleigh Baxter and Ali Miller are not playing club rugby at present as they are part of the full- time Sevens programme in DCU. All the frontline 15-aside players missed the recent interprovincial series, after an arduous world cup campaign that saw Ireland finish fourth.
Want to build on World Cup
The new head coach must also regenerate a squad that lost captain Fiona Coghlan, vice captain Lynne Cantwell and Grace Davitt to retirement.
“We want to build on the World Cup,” Murphy continued. “I know we finished fourth, which before the tournament would have sounded great but we were disappointed with how it finished. We want to address that.”
The Ireland 15-aside squad currently don’t have an updated strength and conditioning programme. “Hopefully they will have something in place soon.”
David Nucifora – the union's new performance director – is now overseeing the women's Sevens programme, the same programme that is government funded with the intention of qualifying for the Rio in 2016.
Poor results last season meant Ireland did not qualify for the World Series so their only realistic chance of making it to Rio is to win the European championships next summer. A tall order considering only three players – Murphy, Baxter and Miller – have transferred from the 15 aside code to John Skurr’s Sevens squad.
They travel to Dubai for an invitational tournament in December. Many of the squad are athletes recruited from other sports, only introduced to rugby in the past 18 months.
“The Europeans are the big one,” said Murphy.”They are the only way to qualify for us at the moment. It is going to be tough. I think we have to win it to qualify for the Olympics.
"It has been said to us that we can play Six Nations, that's massively important to us because we want to win another Grand Slam."
Skurr is joined in DCU by former Ulster centre Stanley McDowell and former Munster conditioning coach Ross O’Callaghan.
“Last year the Sevens squad was given a very difficult task as the majority of players went back to 15s to focus on the world cup. They were chucked in at the deep end and considering they did quite well. You can’t turn a sprinter into a rugby player without game time but you see the improvement this year.”
