Ireland's World Cup... from the sharp end

While great fun to read, blogs written by North American players are not that new. Encouraged - even sometimes hosted - by their Unions they've been appeared pretty regularly for the past year or so, and are a great way of promoting an interest in the sport, and developing a link between the players and supporters.

Players from one of two of the European unions have also dipped the occasional toe into the blog waters - especially the Swedes - but the rather more conservative Home Nation unions have shown little interest in joining the 21st century. Until this week.

Based on a suggestion from Alison Donnelly, the founder of the ScrumQueens website, Ulster and Ireland's Lauren Day and Eliza Downey (left) have started their own blog covering their preparations for their first World Cup.

The first post on the imaginatively titled Eliza and Lauren Blog The World Cup appeared last week, with 24-year-old wing/full back Eliza describing how she was introduced to rugby... only two years ago (though as she had been playing Gaelic football for some years - a similar game to rugby, all be it with fewer obvious rules - so she was hardly a total beginner). Lauren, the 25-year-old prop, posted her first contribution on Saturday, though her was a less happy tale about a broken wrist which means she will not now be able to play in the tournament.

Last weekend also saw Ireland travel to Wales for a training match. Reports are that the home side came out 15-13 winners, though in practice in these sort of games the result is largely irrelevant as there will normally be multiple substitutions and formation changes. Eliza was in the squad for the game so we await her report with interest.