Gallagher ready to banish 2013 demons

Gallagher was part of the depleted England team who went to Ireland and were soundly beaten in 2013, with the Irish going on to grab a famous Grand Slam title.

This Friday night, England are not in an entirely dissimilar position, with the impact of sevens restricting access to their fuller squad, but this time the 23-year-old Saracens flanker is older and wiser and ready for a step up.

"I have played against Ireland enough times now to know it will be a battle. Two years ago, was the first time I had ever played in Ireland it was very hard place to go with a big and vocal crowd. It is a game that has always stuck in my memory. Losing there and losing there badly isn’t something I have ever forgotten so it’s something for myself, and I know a lot of other players too, would want to put right and step up. With the foundation we put in against Italy I think we are making the progress to do that this weekend."

Gallagher was among the try scorers in a very good individual performance against Italy last weekend, when England, while not quite at their clinical best yet, showed much improvement from the opening loss to Wales.

Gallagher visibly winces when she talks about the Wales game.

"It sucks to lose. I won’t lie. I hate losing but I think as long as we improve each game – and we did improve against Italy - then we know we are building the foundations in going on to Ireland. I wouldn't say the Wales resultwas a complete shock. We are all very aware of the situation we are in. It is a brand new cycle for the World Cup and we had seven new caps so the focus was just building a new team and getting people familiar with each other and our play."

"With new combinations of players, everyone has to learn how everyone plays and how to play off each other and that is where we are it. People underestimate the opposition in the tournament now too. It is so competitive – you just had to watch the World Cup to see that and we have to take each game and hope you can keep building."

Filling the number seven shirt for England adds its own pressure, but playing alongside Maggie Alphonsi at club level has been a huge help to Gallagher, who has come through England's youth structures and is highly rated to make the shirt her own for years to come.

"Maggie and I play together at Saracens. We usually play left and right so we both cover the openside role. She is a great friend of mine and has been coaching me since I was very young and we have been playing together for the last five years.She helps with my analysis and we do a lot of training together which has really helped me. We are similar but different in our strengths so I have learned a lot by working with her."

Her breakaway try against Italy also highlighted her pace and power, even if she was relieved just to get the ball down.

"The Italians never make it easy and we knew we would have to grind them down. We needed to be patient in the first half because that is where we really struggled against Wales. With young and new players playing at this level that is sort of what you expect and luckily we eventually tired them out and hit some good  lines.  For me getting to scroe is always fun! It is a rare feeling being a flanker to get that open space and yeswas concerned I almost didn’t get the ball down in the end and their fullback came out of nowhere but thankfully it did."