Katie Whelan (right) is one of two uncapped players in Ireland’s matchday squad for the huge game against England
Richard Bullick
ULSTER prop Sadhbh McGrath has been left out of the Ireland matchday squad for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener against world champions England at Twickenham (2.25pm), with her Clovers understudy Eilis Cahill one of two uncapped players named on the bench.
The other fresh face is scrumhalf Katie Whelan, who gets her opportunity as back-up to Emily Lane, the latter having been promoted to wear the No 9 jersey in the absence of first-choice Aoibheann Reilly, who got injured playing for Wolfhounds last month.
Ballymena native Neve Jones has won her race to be fit after not featuring for English Premiership champions Gloucester Hartpury recently but will be on the bench with Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald chosen to start at hooker on the occasion of her 50th cap.
Newly-appointed skipper Erin King will lead a team missing both of her co-captain predecessors Sam Monaghan and Edel McMahon due to injury, while winger Amee-Leigh Costigan is on a maternity break.
King and Exeter Chiefs forward Dorothy Wall make welcome returns after being ruled out of last summer’s World Cup campaign by injury, with the latter partnering Ulster’s Fiona Tuite in the second row.
Dublin-born Tuite is the only current Ulster player starting but Killinchy native Brittany Hogan of Sale Sharks will pack down on the blindside of a formidable back row also featuring King and 2025 Six Nations Player of the Championship Aoife Wafer.
Ellena Perry has got the nod over her Gloucester Hartpury clubmate Niamh O’Dowd to wear the No 1 jersey this weekend, with the great Linda Djougang the other side of Moloney-MacDonald at tighthead prop.
Olympian Vicky Elmes-Kinlan has usurped the more established Anna McGann as the player to replace Costigan on the wing, joining regulars Stacey Flood and Beibhinn Parsons in Scott Bemand’s back three.
The world-class centre pairing of Ireland Player of the Year Aoife Dalton and Eve Higgins has been retained, with outhalf Dannah O’Brien completing a familiar midfield trio as she wins her 31st cap.
It was expected that the experienced Enya Breen would wear the No 22 jersey as midfield back-up having shown good form on her return to Celtic Challenge action with Clovers last month after a period out injured.
However, Breen doesn’t feature in the matchday squad for Saturday, with Exeter Chiefs centre Nancy McGillivray – who defected from England to Ireland last summer – named instead, which means fullback Flood effectively covering outhalf within the 23.
Ireland Player of the Year Aoife Dalton will play opposite new England captain Meg Jones in the centre at Twickenham
Unlike Reilly and Monaghan, there is no mention in the team announcement press release of McGrath or Breen being injured, in which case the latter’s omission is surprising especially as Flood was given very little game-time at outhalf for Wolfhounds in the Celtic Challenge.
Newcomer Cahill, All Ireland League Player of the Year for last season, came off the bench to replace the injured McGrath midway through the first half of the recent Celtic Challenge final and bagged a brace of tries before the interval.
She is a huge unit but the assumption was that Djougang’s regular understudy McGrath, if fit, would be selected as back-up tighthead here rather than a rookie, especially as Ireland face a daunting task in front of a huge Twickenham crowd of over 75,000.
Although Buncrana bulldozer McGrath is still just 21, she has three previous Six Nations campaigns under her belt and been in good form for Clovers, playing a lot of minutes up until her injury in the Grand Final and carrying relentlessly.
However, Cahill’s eye-catching cameo in that decider defeat in Edinburgh has seen the UL Bohs behemoth leapfrog not only one young Ulsterwoman but two in the prop pecking order, with Wolfhounds tighthead Sophie Barrett from Fermanagh also losing out.
Had Ulsterwomen McGrath and Jones not been fit, there was the prospect of two uncapped front rowers on the bench, with Beth Buttimer – who was part of last summer’s World Cup squad without getting game-time – being the third hooker in the Six Nations squad.
Being without Monaghan for a second consecutive visit to Twickenham – she was also absent for the 88-10 defeat two years ago – is a blow but helped keep Tuite in the team and saved Bemand having to choose between Ruth Campbell and Grace Moore for the bench.
Consistently on the fringes of the squad as fourth scrumhalf, Whelan gets her chance now as a result of Reilly’s injury and Bemand’s decision not to call up the New Zealand-based Molly Scuffil-McCabe for this tournament.
Considering Reilly’s injury had happened some 10 days before the Six Nations squad was named, it had been curious to see just two specialist scrumhalves named but thus no surprise when Whelan was brought into camp.
Although McGann may have been eclipsed by the in-form Elmes-Kinlan at the business end of the Celtic Challenge, she was probably favourite for the wing berth which had become available because of Costigan’s pregnancy.
With Parsons missing all of last spring’s Six Nations due to injury, McGann grabbed her chance including scoring a hat-trick in the record 54-12 rout of Italy in Parma and also bagged a brace in the final World Cup warm-up match against Canada in Belfast.
The Westmeath woman also crossed the whitewash twice in the second group game against Spain at the tournament, but Bemand went with the big two for the remaining matches, so McGann just came off the bench in the defeats to New Zealand and France.
McGann might have hoped that credit in the bank and extra experience would keep her ahead of Elmes-Kinlan in the pecking order but the head coach has gone with the Wicklow woman, who actually started the final fixture of last season’s Six Nations against Scotland.
This will be just the 23-year-old Elmes-Kinlan’s third start for Ireland, having made her debut in the No 14 jersey in the comprehensive victory over Australia at Ravenhill a few weeks after she returned from the Olympics.
When it was assumed McGann might start and Breen be nailed on for a bench berth, there was a sense that the No 23 jersey could be up to a four-way fight – between Elmes-Kinlan, McGillivray, the uncapped Alana McInerney and hot prospect Roybn O’Connor.
Elmes-Kinlan would have been seen as favourite for that spot, albeit McInerney also covers across the three-quarter line, with McGillivray just a specialist centre and 20-year-old Wexford firecracker O’Connor perhaps better being held back for a different fixture.
In the event, it has been an emotional week for O’Connor, whose grandfather was buried on Wednesday, but the exciting young Wexford woman is set to sparkle for Ireland Under 21s against Italy in Galway next Saturday as she awaits her opportunity at senior level.
Newly-appointed skipper Erin King will lead Ireland for the first time in this Saturday’s daunting Six Nations opener
Including their victorious captain Dalton, newly recrowned Celtic Challenge champions Wolfhounds supply eight of Saturday’s starting team with two from beaten finalists Clovers and five English-based players.
Of the home-based players, Leinster have seven in the run-on line-up plus two more on the bench while the other three provinces must settle for just one starter each. Munster and Connacht have one apiece in a replacements panel featuring four exiles.
As it transpires only six of the starting team will wear the same jersey number they did in Ireland’s last outing, that heartbreaking 18-13 World Cup exit at the hands of France last September in Exeter.
Those half dozen are backs Flood, Parsons, Dalton, Higgins and O’Brien along with tighthead Djougang, while there are positional switches for Tuite, Wafer and Hogan – the back row unit that dramatic day at Sandy Park – in a reshuffled pack.
The six personnel changes see Elmes-Kinlan, Lane, Perry, Moloney-MacDonald, Wall and King come into the team for Costigan, Reilly, O’Dowd, Jones, Campbell and Monaghan respectively and five of those on duty this Saturday weren’t part of the World Cup squad.
For the record, nine of the XV who were in the team last time at Twickenham start again this weekend albeit the two centres have since swapped places, likewise Wafer and Hogan in the back row and Parsons switched from the left wing to the right.
Although Parsons played on the right for Ireland when Costigan was in the team, the expectation was that she might move across in the latter’s absence, whether paired with Clovers team-mate McGann or Elmes-Kinlan of Wolfhounds.
IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Leinster/Wolfhounds); Beibhinn Parsons (Connacht/Clovers), Aoife Dalton (Leinster/Wolfhounds), Eve Higgins (Leinster/Wolfhounds), Vicky Elmes-Kinlan (Leinster/Wolfhounds); Dannah O’Brien (Leinster/Wolfhounds), Emily Lane (Munster/Clovers); Ellena Perry (Gloucester Hartpury), Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Linda Djougang (Leinster/Wolfhounds), Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs), Fiona Tuite (Ulster/Wolfhounds), Brittany Hogan (Sale Sharks), Erin King (Leinster/Wolfhounds; capt), Aoife Wafer (Harlequins). Replacements: Neve Jones (Gloucester Hartpury), Niamh O’Dowd (Gloucester Hartpury), Eilis Cahill (Munster/Clovers), Ruth Campbell (Leinster/Clovers), Grace Moore (Ealing Trailfinders/Wolfhounds); Katie Whelan (Leinster/Clovers), Nancy McGillivray (Exeter Chiefs), Anna McGann (Connacht/Clovers).
Uncapped prop Eilis Cahill has been selected on the Ireland bench instead of young Ulsterwoman Sadhbh McGrath
