Irish will be ready and fighting for play-off - McCabe

Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe said the side will be "fighting and hungry" for their World Cup play-off after their ambitions of qualifying automatically were ended by France in their winner takes all Group A2 match. Melvine Malard's acrobatic effort broke the deadlock on 40 minutes and despite Thiniba Samoura being sent-off for two bookable offences, Carla Ward's side could not use the player advantage to help stage a comeback. Results elsewhere meant that the Republic of Ireland finished third in their group but will have another chance to reach next year's finals in Brazil through a play-off in the autumn. "In an ideal world we win tonight and we go to the World Cup, but it's not to be," McCabe told RTE. "We have to recover now in the off-season and come back in October and see who we get in the play-offs and push. It's never easy qualifying for a World Cup. "We have to do it the hard way now. But I know this group of girls and this team will be ready for it, we'll be fighting and we'll be hungry for it." Ward's side are aiming to qualify for consecutive finals and, despite the result, McCabe added they have a lot to be proud of. It was also a successful campaign for the Republic of Ireland captain, who was the side's highest scorer with three goals. "It's obviously disappointing but I think we can be really proud of ourselves pushing some of the top nations in the world in this campaign right to the very end," she continued. "Even tonight, it was only 1-0, but I thought we reacted really well in the second half and put a little bit more pressure on France, but it wasn't to be. "In the first half, we probably could have got a bit closer to them but I was really happy with the reaction from the team in the second half and we pushed them right to the very end."