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Ireland finished in sixth place on Sunday.
The weekend was marked by defeats against France, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, but there were solid victories against Fiji and Russia.
But it was a little lost between the manic victory of Munster on Gloucester and the Leinster clbadic with Toulouse in France.
The fact that the appearance of a national team in Colorado on the first day of the World Women's Rugby Series went under the radar is linked to one of the problems identified by the IRFU when it was trying to develop the female game: communication.
They realize they need to improve and this is the fifth point in the "Sustainable Systems" section of the 2018-2023 strategic plan.
One of the other problems that the IRFU is facing is that the Six Nations men are rightly considered the highlights of the rugby calendar, while the union admits that it does not recognize even not that the women's match of the 15 years and that of the 7 years are different. sports.
In February 2017, there was a surprise when three Irish players were dismissed from a Six Nations clash with France to play a Las Vegas 7 tournament.
It could happen again.
So, how does the syndicate think that a 7s tournament can outweigh a Six Nations tie, since this could never happen in the men's version?
The answer lies in the position of the IRFU that this is all part of a high performance plan for women's football.
"In the eyes of the public, there is great affection and dedication to the Six Nations and the central role that plays into our calendar and it is a great tradition," said Mary RT Quinn, a member of the committee. IRFU (left) at RTÉ Sport.
"The difficulty with the 7 is that its appearance is mostly online, the matches are broadcast online, and it is held around the world while the public may not be aware.
"On our website, we emphasize that and let people know [fixtures] well in advance.
"At the moment, we do not have enough players to have two separate teams, especially the way World Rugby organizes the season.
"[We have] an integrated high performance program, which addresses both 15 and 7 and where players are moved within this program. "
The plan to increase women's participation in all aspects of rugby by 20% or more over the next five years provides that the game of 7, Olympic sport, be treated "as a path to play", but also as an end point if deemed necessary. adapted.
Among the main goals of the "Women in Rugby" Action Plan for the next five years is "Six Nations title (top 3 if not), win two World Series tournaments at 7 and qualifying for the Cups. of the Olympic world from 2020 to 7 and 2022 ".
Philip Browne, director of IRFU, said: "I do not recognize that these are totally different sports.
"With women's play, we need to put together a proper set of paths – they are not there at the moment, that's the difficulty we have.
"The way we see the 7 and most unions see them, is a path in the game. We do not distinguish that 7 is a different game than 15, it's a subset of the game.
"The women's program is the women's program.
"There is an exchange between the team of 7s and the team of 15 – the women's program is so effective and, like David [Nucifora] We have badembled a world-clbad high-performance team around this women's program by putting in place an integrated women's program, which allows us to do that.
"We simply can not afford to have a separate system with a full support structure and a $ 15 system with a separate program … it's actually a joint program.
"This is partly due to obvious financial reasons, but a more important reason is that we do not have enough actors to support or support two different types of programs."
This is of course a work in progress and if the eyebrows do not rise as high the next time the team of 15 years loses a player of the series of 7, it will be considered a progress.
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