BY RICHARD BULLICK
THE Vodafone Championship, which gets underway on Sunday with holders Leinster hosting Ulster in Dublin (2.30pm) before title favourites Munster face Connacht in Cork (4.15pm) – both on TG4 Sport Youtube – is taking place in the same window as the past two years.
However, this August’s interpros will have a very different feel with Ireland’s leading lights away on World Cup duty, which could level up the playing field a bit and leave Leinster’s bid for a hat-trick of title triumphs in real jeopardy.
As in the men’s game, Leinster are mass suppliers to the Ireland women’s team and so are hit hardest by the international call-ups, compounded by additional absenteeism for other reasons including an unlucky number of injuries.
Consequently, new head coach Ben Martin’s matchday squad of 23 for the tournament opener against Ulster at Energia Park contains no fewer than 13 players who have never worn the blue jersey before at senior level before.
Perennial strugglers Ulster were thrashed 57-5 on their last visit to Donnybrook but Leinster’s stark depletion will give the northern province hope as they seek what would only be a second victory in the competition since 2011.
All four provinces have new captains this season, albeit Molly Boyne actually led Leinster to victory in last August’s interpro final in the unfortunate absence of retiring skipper Hannah O’Connor due to concussion.
Skippering their respective provinces is a deserved honour for Ulster’s India Daley and Munster’s Maeve Og O’Leary and something for both to get their teeth into on the back of a tough year in which injury compounded the loss of their IRFU central contracts.
Both had been converted to hooker within the Irish system at a time when the national team needed to bolster depth below Neve Jones – prior to the return from exile of Cliodhna Moloney – but Daley and O’Leary make welcome returns to back row roles today.
Meanwhile, the new Connacht captain, taking over from Ireland squad outhalf Nicole Fowley, is young centre Eabha Nic Dhonnacha, though like Ulster under Murray Houston, the westerners retain last season’s head coach in Emer O’Dowd.
By contrast, there are new regimes in charge of the established Big Two, with Australian Martin replacing Tania Rosser, who had completed her three-year term at Leinster, and Matt Brown taking over the Munster reins from Fiona Hayes.
At face value, based on the sides selected for the opening round of fixtures, Brown would appear to have a better chance than Martin of presiding over an interpro title triumph in his first campaign at the helm.
For these interpros, Leinster were always set to be without the likes of outgoing vice-captain Aoife Dalton, player of the series 12 months ago, the most capped player in the current Irish squad Linda Djougang and other Irish stars such as Aoife Wafer and Dannah O’Brien.
However, their list of recognisable names missing, at least at the outset of the competition, is much more extensive, with some 20 notable backs absent for the opening game, half of those being back three players.
The latter cast includes Stacey Flood and Vicky Elmes-Kinlan who are in pre-World Cup camp along with a quartet who featured for the Irish sevens side in this past season’s World Series namely Olympian Amy Larn, Robyn O’Connor, Ella Roberts and Clare Gorman.
Irish internationals Natasja Behan and Emma Tilly, both of whom won their first caps on the tour to Japan in August 2022, are sidelined by injury at present, while there is no sign of flyer Anna Doyle, who bagged four tries in one game for Wolfhounds last season.
Another absentee from this season’s Leinster squad is the less-heralded Aimee Clarke, uncapped by Ireland but an effective performer in blue over recent seasons even among a cast of international players.
The versatile Ella Durkan, who has switched allegiance from her native Ulster this summer, might have been an option at fullback but isn’t included in Leinster’s matchday squad for the clash with her home province so also presumed injured.
New Ulster captain India Daley representing Club of the Year Enniskillen RFC at the 2023 Local Women Sport Awards
In addition to the back three cupboard being threadbare in terms of familiar faces, Irish international Leah Tarpey – Player of the Match in the last two interpro finals having bagged a brace of tries on both occasions – is a big loss through injury.
So she joins Ireland centres Dalton and Eve Higgins in being unavailable, while recent Irish squad regular Katie Heffernan retired this summer and Paris Olympian Megan Burns isn’t included in Martin’s first selection.
The experienced Elise O’Byrne-White and Railway Union’s long-serving skipper Niamh Byrne are no longer around, while four notable halfbacks won’t feature for Leinster in Sunday’s opening interpro including Ireland’s first choice No 10 O’Brien.
Scrumhalf Katie Whelan, Player of the Match in the first fixture of last season when she bagged two tries, hasn’t been named, while ex-international Ailsa Hughes was included in Martin’s initial training squad of 65 at the start of the summer but isn’t involved now.
With O’Brien being injured for most of last August’s interprovincial campaign, former international Nikki Caughey’s outhalf understudy then was her fellow Ulsterwoman Jemma Farrell, but she hasn’t returned for a second season in the blue jersey.
So despite Leinster’s normal embarrassment of riches behind the scrum, Caughey is the only Irish international in Sunday’s backline and no doubt Martin will be pleased to have the experienced presence of a player initially felt likely to retire after last season’s success.
Caughey is partnered at halfback by 20-year-old vice-captain Jade Gaffney while Irish sevens regular Kathy Baker makes her Leinster debut in midfield alongside last season’s newcomer Cara Martin.
The new-look back three is comprised of a trio of debutants, teenager Caoimhe McCormack picked at fullback after an eye-catching campaign for Railway Union last season with Maggie Boylan – who has switched from Munster – and Emma Brogan on the wings.
Ireland’s top three props – Djougang, Niamh O’Dowd and Christy Haney – are all missing along with Wicklow’s Caoimhe Molloy, who was a useful utility forward for Leinster last season, and Tricia Doyle who featured in the Celtic Challenge.
The newly-injured Sarah Delaney would have been absent due to being in World Cup camp anyway, while Leinster are without Ireland locks Eimear Corri and Ruth Campbell and rising star Alma Atagamen won’t be involved in Sunday’s opener either.
Ireland taliswoman Aoife Wafer was never going to be playing in these interpros due to World Cup commitments – never mind having signed for English Premiership club Harlequins – but injury has denied her younger sister Orla Wafer a chance to shine.
With O’Connor now retired, Ireland Under 20s captain Jane Neill is an impressive replacement in the No 8 jersey and she will be flanked by debutant Ciara Short of Wicklow – who did feature for Wolfhounds last season – and the wily Boyne.
Young Wolfhounds lock Cliodhna Ni Chonchobhair is partnered in the engineroom by Blackrock clubmate and fellow Leinster debutant Kate Jordan behind a front row with two experienced campaigners in Aoife Moore and Lisa Callan.
A regular starter in Leinster’s title triumph two years ago, hooker Callan missed last season’s successful title defence due to injury but, having filled the role of assistant manager for that campaign she returns to pack down between Moore and Katie Layde.
With the exceptions being Clodagh Dunne, back from Leicester Tigers, and Kelly Burke, six of the eight Leinster replacements for the Ulster match are uncapped by their province including Irish international Katie Corrigan.
At the Vodafone Championship launch (from left) Ava Ryder, Maeve Og O’Leary, Molly Boyne and Maebh Clenaghan
Corrigan scored a try in each of Ireland’s home matches in last year’s Six Nations aged just 18 but has yet to pull on the blue jersey at adult level due to being injured 12 months ago, while reserve scrumhalf Erin McConnell got experience for Wolfhounds last season.
Like Corrigan and Rosie Searle, Caughey’s outhalf understudy Ellie O’Sullivan-Sexton was part of the Ireland Under 20s squad for last month’s Six Nations Summer Series in Wales. The final Leinster replacement is Old Belvedere flanker Emma Kelly.
Ulster have no full internationals in their matchday squad of 23, though skipper Daley and her Enniskillen clubmate Sophie Barrett – unlucky not to be in the World Cup picture – have both been travelling reserves for Ireland.
Two notable names from the squad Ulster announced at the start of the summer who won’t feature on the opening weekend are outhalf Abby Moyles, a Leinster native, and lock Keelin Brady from Cavan.
The relatively experienced pair of Wolfhounds squad scrumhalf Rachael McIlroy and centre Kelly McCormill from Monaghan, who represented Combined Provinces in the inaugural Celtic Challenge, have just been named as the two backline replacements.
With Wolfhounds player Lauren Farrell-McCabe wearing the No 10 jersey, fit-again former Armagh gaelic footballer Niamh Marley has been handed a new role of strike-running fullback on her return to the white jersey after being sidelined by injury last season.
Due to a cruciate rupture sustained training with Wolfhounds in January last year, this will be the 33-year-old Marley’s first appearance in white since she and Durkan scored cracking tries in the third-place play-off victory over Connacht in Cork two seasons ago.
She is joined in the visiting back three for Sunday afternoon by another gaelic footballer, Down’s Paige Smyth, and Enniskillen flyer Lucy Thompson, with Old Belvedere try-machine Megan Edwards not part of this season’s Ulster squad.
Clogher Valley’s Siobhan Sheerin, a newcomer to provincial rugby, is handed an Ulster debut in the centre alongside Ireland Under 20s bruiser Tara O’Neill, with Farrell-McCabe partnered at halfback by Cooke’s Georgia Boyce.
The Ulster pack is shorn of Irish internationals Brittany Hogan – who captained the team in last season’s third-place play-off – Fiona Tuite and Sadhbh McGrath due to their World Cup commitments but has several formidable performers.
Daley herself was magnificent in last August’s third place play-off and she is sure to lead from the front, while Barrett is a real powerhouse and her fellow Ireland Under 20s front-rower Maebh Clenaghan started all 10 games for Wolfhounds last winter.
Vice-captain Brenda Barr brings experience in the second row alongside newcomer Lauren Darley and Daley is flanked in the back row by Ruby Starrett and Katie Hetherington with the pack completed by loosehead prop Sarah Roberts.
Assisted by Wolfhounds supremo Neill Alcorn, Houston has gone with a 6-2 split on the bench and his six forward reserves include a real impact player in Stacey Sloan and Blackrock prop Ava Fannin.
The other replacement forwards are reserve hooker Megan Simpson, Cara McLean of Larne and the Enniskillen duo of Moya Hill and Rebecca Beacom, with Sunday’s matchday squad not including veteran Aishling O’Connell or young Wolfhounds prop Sophie McAllister.
One interesting contrast between this weekend’s Munster and Leinster selections is in relation to the utilisation of national players released for duty, with the southern province bringing the returners straight back in.
Last season’s vice-captain Aoife Corey starts at fullback for Munster at Virgin Media Park after the heartache of her surprise early axing by Ireland and it is fantastic to see the magnificent fullback feeling in the right frame of mind to line out in the red jersey.
Another World Cup camp discard Jane Clohessy – who like Corey won her first international cap in the final fixture of this spring’s Six Nations – is on the Munster bench, as is teenager Ailish Quinn for Connacht a week on from her Ireland debut at the same venue.
Whereas Corrigan is just on the bench for Leinster and the likes of Larn, Whelan, Atagamen and Burns not involved at all this weekend, Irish sevens players Alana McInerney and Chisom Ugwueru join fellow Clare native Corey in the Munster back three.
Top try-scorer in last season’s interpro, McInerney partners vice-captain Stephanie Nunan in the centre with Irish Under 20 international Lyndsay Clarke – like the other Clare trio a product of new AIL club Ennis RFC – joining Ugwueru on the wings.
Impressive prospect Caitriona Finn, who was used off the bench last season aged just 18 before being brought to WXV1 by Ireland, makes her first Munster start, and will be deployed in the No 10 jersey with Abbie Salter-Townshend as her halfback partner.
Munster are fielding a formidable pack with heavyweight props Grainne Burke and AIL Player of the Year Eilis Cahill either side of the former’s recent Ireland Under 20 colleague Saoirse Crowe in a front row missing Ireland squad hooker Beth Buttimer.
Claire Bennett is partnered in the engineroom by tall Ireland Under 20 and Clovers lock Aoibhe O’Flynn – making her first start in red – with O’Leary joined in the back row by fellow flanker Brianna Heylmann and the vastly-experienced Chloe Pearse.
Last season’s skipper Pearse will still have an official leadership role as one of O’Leary’s two vice-captains while Clohessy should make a significant impact up front for Munster when she comes off the bench.
Munster’s replacements panel also includes outhalf Kate Flannery, in pre-World Cup camp until this past week, Ciara McLoughlin, Annakate Cournane, Ireland Under 20 prop Lily Morris and three other fresh faces in Aoife Fleming, Eve Prendergast and Orna Moynihan.
Unlike other provinces, Connacht named an initial squad which included all of the western province’s World Cup hopefuls, but even in the inevitable absence of the likes of Fowley and Ireland skipper Edel McMahon, they can still field a useful line-up.
Meabh Deely, Anna McGann and Beibhinn Parsons are missing, young Irish sevens star Hannah Clarke isn’t involved this weekend and Laoise McGonagle is injured but fullback Clara Barrett was capped by Ireland aged just 19.
She is joined in a lively back three by current Under 20 international Emily Foley and Ava Ryder with experienced Connacht Player of the Year Orla Dixon and new captain Nic Dhonnacha paired in the centre.
Highly-rated teenager Siofra Hession is handed a debut in the No 10 jersey alongside diminutive scrumhalf Grainne Moran, who occupied the position last season in the absence of Irish international Aoibheann Reilly.
Giant Irish international Megan Collis and national Under 20s prop Ella Burns pack down either side of UL Bohs hooker Lily Brady in the front row with Grace Browne Moran partnering the highly-promising Poppy Garvey behind them.
Two of Garvey’s Ireland Under 20s team-mates from this summer, Beibhinn Gleeson and Jemima Adams-Verling, line out in a back row completed by ex-Connacht captain Lesley Ring, who plays for Dublin club Old Belvedere but hails from Sligo.
Young Quinn is the standout name on a Connacht bench which also includes Stacey Hanley, Hannah Coen, Roisin Maher, Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey, Karly Tierney, Sinead O’Brien and Fodhla Ni Bhraonain, several of whom are new to this level or representative rugby.
Incidentally, Connacht captain Nic Dhonnacha, Barrett and Brady play their club rugby with All Ireland League champions UL Bohs along with no fewer than a dozen of the Munster starting line-up, with the only exceptions being captain O’Leary, Clarke and Crowe.
LEINSTER: Caoimhe McCormack (Railway Union); Emma Brogan (MU Barnhall), Kathy Baker (Blackrock), Cara Martin (Blackrock), Maggie Boylan (Blackrock); Nikki Caughey (Railway Union), Jade Gaffney (Old Belvedere); Aoife Moore (Blackrock), Lisa Callan (Old Belvedere), Katie Layde (Old Belvedere), Clíodhna Ní Chonchobhair (Blackrock), Kate Jordan (Blackrock), Ciara Short (Wicklow), Molly Boyne (Railway Union; capt), Jane Neill (Old Belvedere). Replacements: Méabh Keegan (Railway Union), Kelly Burke (MU Barnhall), Clodagh Dunne (Old Belvedere), Rosie Searle (Navan), Emma Kelly (Old Belvedere), Erin McConnell (Wicklow), Ellie O’Sullivan Sexton (Old Belvedere), Katie Corrigan (Old Belvedere).
ULSTER: Niamh Marley (Cooke); Lucy Thompson (Enniskillen), Siobhán Sheerin (Clogher Valley), Tara O’Neill (Cooke), Paige Smyth (Ballynahinch); Lauren Farrell McCabe (Suttonians), Georgia Boyce (Cooke); Sarah Roberts (Queen’s), Maebh Clenaghan (Queen’s), Sophie Barrett (Enniskillen), Lauren Darley (Queen’s), Brenda Barr (Suttonians), Ruby Starrett (Queen’s)), Katie Hetherington (Clogher Valley), India Daley (Blackrock; capt). Replacements: Megan Simpson (Cooke), Cara McLean (Larne), Ava Fannin (Blackrock), Rebecca Beacom (Enniskillen), Moya Hill (Enniskillen), Rachael McIlroy (Queen’s), Kelly McCormill (Cooke), Stacey Sloan (Cooke).
MUNSTER: Aoife Corey (UL Bohs); Lyndsay Clarke (Ennis), Alana McInerney (UL Bohs), Stephanie Nunan (UL Bohs), Chisom Ugwueru (UL Bohs); Caitríona Finn (UL Bohs), Abbie Salter-Townshend (UL Bohs); Gráinne Burke (UL Bohs), Saoirse Crowe (Shannon), Eilís Cahill (UL Bohs), Aoibhe O’Flynn (UL Bohs), Claire Bennett (UL Bohs), Brianna Heylmann (UL Bohs), Maeve Óg O’Leary (Blackrock; capt), Chloe Pearse (UL Bohs). Replacements: Aoife Fleming (Ballincollig), Ciara McLoughlin (UL Bohs), Lily Morris (Ballincollig), Jane Clohessy (UL Bohs), Annakate Cournane (Shannon), Eve Prendergast (Ballincollig), Kate Flannery (UL Bohs), Orna Moynihan (Ennis).
CONNACHT: Clara Barrett (UL Bohs); Emily Foley (Galwegians), Orla Dixon (Galwegians), Éabha Nic Dhonnacha (UL Bohs; capt), Ava Ryder (Blackrock); Siofra Hession (Creggs), Gráinne Moran (Galwegians); Ella Burns (Tuam/Oughterard), Lily Brady (UL Bohs), Megan Collis (Railway Union), Poppy Garvey (Railway Union), Grace Browne Moran (Galwegians), Beibhinn Gleeson (Tuam/Oughterard), Lesley Ring (Old Belvedere), Jemima Adams Verling (Creggs). Replacements: Stacy Hanley (Galwegians), Hannah Coen (Creggs), Roisin Maher (Galwegians), Ailish Quinn (Galwegians), Caoilfhionn Conway Morrissey (Ennis), Karly Tierney (Tuam/Oughterard), Sinead O’Brien (Galwegians), Fódhla Ní Bhraonáin (Tuam/Oughterard).
