While Bemand was part of the England set-up back then, the current Ireland head coach is well aware of how difficult a defeat that was for women’s rugby on these shores. Their most recent visit to Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in April 2023 had ended in a 24-7 reversal, but with Anna McGann bagging a hat-trick of tries, Sunday's latest trip to Parma produced an emphatic 54-12 success. “A couple of years ago there was a result here that meant quite a lot to the Irish people and we didn’t end up qualifying for the World Cup. To come back here and put 50 points on what I think is a good, combative Italy team, I think that matters for this group and for people that have been here longer than me,” Bemand remarked in the aftermath of Sunday’s game. When you consider they lost out to Italy at the RDS Arena in Dublin at the same stage of last year’s Championship, Sunday’s result suggests Ireland are making significant progress under Bemand. A third-place finish in the 2024 Six Nations ensured the Irish will return to the World Cup finals in England later on this year, where there is every possibility they could meet France in the knockout stages of the tournament. There were encouraging signs in their opening round bout with the French in Belfast last Saturday week, but Bemand and his players were ultimately disappointed to kick-start their 2025 Championship campaign with a 27-15 defeat. Their second round meeting away to the Italians presented them with an ideal opportunity to work on some of the areas that fell short in the France game and Bemand feels they managed to do that over the course of a clinical display. “We said we were moving in the right direction and we couldn’t prove that last week with a win. It was really important to go back to the training ground and tidy up some of those pieces. I think probably some of the scores today, we’ve taken from last week and put right this week,” Bemand added.