Sparkling prospect Robyn O’Connor will make her senior Ireland debut in Galway this weekend
Richard Bullick
SPARKLING prospect Robyn O’Connor will make her debut for Ireland in Saturday’s historic clash with Italy at the newly-developed Dexcom Stadium as Galway hosts a Six Nations match for the first time ever.
The 20-year-old Wexford fire-cracker is the only uncapped player in Scott Bemand’s matchday squad and one of three changes to the starting line-up from last weekend’s 33-12 defeat to England at Twickenham.
There is a first Six Nations start for the strapping Nancy McGillivray of Exeter Chiefs in the centre alongside Aoife Dalton – who won Player of the Match in Ireland’s record 54-12 rout of the Italians in Parma last spring – in place of the latter’s regular partner Eve Higgins.
Anna McGann scored a hat-trick in that last meeting with Italy and delivered a brilliant finish off the bench for Ireland’s first try last weekend so might have hoped to get the nod out wide along with fellow Connacht winger Beibhinn Parsons in their home provincial stadium.
However, she will again wear the No 23 jersey and O’Connor’s selection on the left wing also means there is no place in the matchday squad for Olympian Vicky Elmes-Kinlan, who was a surprise selection for the England game but acquitted herself well last weekend.
The other two players to drop out of the run-on line-up are Higgins and Exeter Chiefs back five forward Dorothy Wall, both of whom were taken off early at Twickenham after fairly quiet outings by their standards.
Both have lost their starting spots for this next match, with McGillivray and lock Ruth Campbell rewarded for impactful performances off the bench in London, so now Higgins and Wall will hope to do likewise against Italy.
Wall, who subsequently missed last summer’s World Cup due to a ruptured achilles, and Brittany Hogan responded superbly to being left out of the starting team for the round two clash with the Italians last season.
After her imposing performance against England last weekend, when she topped both the carries and tackles chart for Ireland, Killinchy native Hogan is again the only Ulster-born player in the team to face Italy.
However, Hogan’s Dublin-born provincial team-mate Fiona Tuite who was given the responsibility of being vice-captain for the first time last Saturday, retains her place in the second row, where she is joined by Old Belvedere clubmate Campbell.
Blindside flanker Brittany Hogan (centre) is the only Ulster-born player in the starting team for Saturday
The starting front row remains unchanged, so Gloucester Hartpury loosehead Ellena Perry and Exeter Chiefs hooker Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald – who won her 50th cap at Twickenham – continue alongside Linda Djougang.
That means Perry’s clubmates Niamh O’Dowd and Ulster exile Neve Jones – the latter a consistent starter for Ireland over recent years – must content themselves with bench berths for a second week running.
That pair are joined as front row reserves by young Ulsterwoman Sadhbh McGrath, who has been restored to the No 18 jersey at the expense of Munster behemoth Eilis Cahill, who came off the bench last Saturday to win her first cap.
So too did scrumhalf Katie Whelan, and she will continue as understudy to Emily Lane after Connacht’s Aoibheann Reilly unsurprisingly lost her battle to be back from injury in time to have the thrill of wearing the green jersey in Galway.
However, there is a welcome return to the matchday squad for fit-again Sam Monaghan, who along with the currently injured Edel McMahon, co-captained Ireland from Bemand took charge in the autumn of 2023 until Erin King’s appointment in January as the new skipper.
Making her international comeback after missing the World Cup due to injury, King scored Ireland’s second try at Twickenham, where the girls in green drew the second half 12-12 against the new world champions England in front of a crowd of over 77,000.
The 22-year-old will again pack down on the openside of an unchanged back row where she and Hogan flank last year’s Six Nations Player of the Championship Aoife Wafer, who managed just three carries in the England game.
Gloucester Hartpury lock Monaghan replaces Ealing Trailfinders flanker Grace Moore in the No 20 jersey but Bemand has plenty of back five flexibility with both Tuite and Wall capable of being deployed in the engineroom or at blindside flanker.
Wolfhounds’ Celtic Challenge title-winning captain Dalton starts her 12th consecutive competitive match for Ireland as she wins her 30th cap still aged just 22 but will have a new centre partner in McGillivray.
McGillivray was part of the extended Red Roses training squad before defecting from England to Ireland last summer and now gets her big chance to start alongside Dalton, with Higgins on the bench and the experienced Enya Breen again left out of the matchday 23.
Breen’s omission means that first-choice fullback Stacey Flood will continue to double up as outhalf cover for regular No 10 Dannah O’Brien, with O’Connor able to slot in as the last line of defence for the former if required.
Young Ulsterwoman Sadhbh McGrath returns to the Ireland matchday 23 for the game against Italy
There are actually seven changes compared to Ireland’s starting team for last spring’s Parma match, with Parsons, McGillivray, O’Connor, Lane, Perry, Moloney-MacDonald and Hogan all coming into the run-on line-up.
They take the places of four women who will be on the bench this time – McGann, her room-mate Higgins, O’Dowd and Ballymena native Jones – along with the pregnant Amee-Leigh Costigan and the injured duo of Reilly and McMahon.
Italy lost their Guinness Six Nations opener 40-7 against France last Saturday so will arrive in Galway as underdogs but buoyed by memories of their previous visit to Ireland, which yielded a bonus-point victory over their hosts at the RDS on Easter Sunday 2024.
There are no fewer than seven Old Belvedere players in Ireland’s starting line-up this weekend, plus Whelan on the bench, and that tally doesn’t even include Hogan and O’Dowd, who were with the club before moves to the English Premiership earlier this season.
IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Railway Union/Leinster/Wolfhounds); Beibhinn Parsons (Blackrock/Connacht/Clovers), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Wolfhounds), Nancy McGillivray (Exeter Chiefs), Robyn O’Connor (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Wolfhounds); Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Wolfhounds), Emily Lane (Blackrock/Munster/Clovers); Ellena Perry (Gloucester Hartpury), Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Wolfhounds), Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Clovers), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere/Ulster/Wolfhounds), Brittany Hogan (Sale Sharks), Erin King (capt; Old Belvedere/Leinster/Wolfhounds), Aoife Wafer (Harlequins). Replacements: Neve Jones (Gloucester Hartpury), Niamh O’Dowd (Gloucester Hartpury), Sadhbh McGrath (Cooke/Ulster/Clovers), Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs), Sam Monaghan (Gloucester Hartpury); Katie Whelan (Old Belvedere/Leinster/Clovers), Eve Higgins (Railway Union/Leinster/Wolfhounds), Anna McGann (Railway Union/Connacht/Clovers).
Last spring’s Player of the Match against Italy, Aoife Dalton, will win her 30th cap at Dexcom Stadium
