England pair Walker and Phillips out until the World Cup, but will be a key player in the tournament.
A delighted Phillips on the back of his superb performance for Ireland was also named as an Ireland Women in the Team of the Match
Phillips’s captaincy as Ireland Women was highly acclaimed, as were her teammates’ performances in the contest.
It was her run-up across the pitch to help Phillips score the opening try of the game and in doing so, she became just the fifth female captain to score four tries in one game or more at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Other captains to score four tries are: Cpt. Helen Cuthbert of England, Cpt. Margaret “Princess” Hall of Scotland and Cpt. Joan J. Walsh of Ireland.
Phillips said: “Our team is well coached and very professional and we do the maximum out of our players and give them a high enough standard.
“But we can only use what we’re given, and when you’ve been through the team-building stage, that is a lot of it. You have to make the choices you’ve to make, and I can see that this is another step in our progression.
“Last week we were playing a good team – they’re stronger than us so we were trying to show them a different side of rugby and that’s what we did.
“In the game we knew we had to use the ball and we just stuck to our plan and it worked.”
Ireland Women coach, Mervyn Davies, said: “I’ve been watching the Women’s World Cup final, and the last thing that they needed was a man on the blindside.
“The way we won this game, we showed our ability and we’ve done it with our heart and not with anything else in our mind apart from our objective and that was to win the Women’s World Cup.
“To do that, you have to win the hearts and minds of the people who make World Cup selections. We did that with our heart and we should do it again, as we have every year.”
Phillips said:
