BY RICHARD BULLICK
EVE Higgins will be playing inside centre for Ireland for the first time against France this Saturday at Kingspan Stadium (1.00pm) as well as covering the back three, but the gifted Kildare woman is adaptable enough to fill most roles.
When she fronted up for media duties on Tuesday, the 25-year-old impressively fielded the first four questions in Irish and reeled off what felt like fluid answers before conducting the rest of her press conference in English with the comfort of a well-established senior pro.
One of the most experienced players in the Ireland sevens set-up over recent years and an Olympian in Paris last summer, Higgins has also shone for the national XVs team during their renaissance under Scott Bemand in the past 18 months.
Along with winger Beibhinn Parsons and scrumhalf Aoibheann Reilly, Higgins was made available for the WXV3 tournament in Dubai in October 2023 and helped herself to four tries in the 109-0 rout of Kazakhstan in the opening game.
She started all five matches in the No 13 jersey and filled the role of vice-captain during last spring’s Six Nations before finding herself a slightly more peripheral figure during Ireland’s amazing autumn, making the run-on line-up in only one of the four fixtures.
However, that was a reflection of the fantastic competition for two starting spots between three excellent centres, with Enya Breen, Aoife Dalton and Higgins the female equivalents of Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose in the Ireland men’s set-up.
There was widespread pundit disapproval when Dalton was omitted for the Italian game last Easter Sunday after 11 consecutive starts since her debut in Japan, and on the back of an impressive performance against France, rounded off with her first Six Nations try.
Bemand made it clear at the time how highly he rated Dalton and that the then 20-year-old had ‘done nothing wrong’ and likewise finding herself starting on the bench against Australia, New Zealand and USA was no indictment of Higgins.
The same applies this weekend to Breen, who was stand-in skipper for Ireland’s final two matches at WXV1 in Vancouver last autumn and has been in fine form captaining Clovers in the Celtic Challenge over recent months.
In Ireland’s last 10 matches, Breen and Higgins have had seven starts each with six for Dalton, who has been in the run-on team for 16 of her country’s last 20 Tests with the other pair clocking up 10 starts apiece during that period.
The trio are all top players and also officer class figures, for the younger Dalton was vice-captain of the title-winning Leinster and Wolfhounds sides this season and held leadership positions previously in various underage rugby and gaelic football teams.
Coming into last season’s Six Nations, Bemand spoke about how much of a valued leader the understated Dalton had become in the Irish set-up while the same applies to the more established Higgins and Breen.
This heavyweight triumvirate push each other hard in their country’s cause but there’s also a strong bond between them as illustrated by that special embrace shared in Vancouver in the moments after last September’s famous victory over New Zealand.
When the final whistle went, on-pitch captain Breen’s starting centre partner Dalton raced straight for the Cork woman and jumped on top of her before pulling in replacement Higgins for a tight three-way hug as she came to them a few seconds later.
Philip Doyle’s hugely successful Irish women’s side of just over a decade ago had three outstanding centres in Lynne Cantwell, Grace Davitt and the slightly younger Jenny Murphy and now Bemand has his own welcome midfield dilemma in this encouraging new era.
Dalton won her first seven senior international caps as a teenager, partnered in both Tests in Japan in August 2022 and then the following spring’s Six Nations opener by Breen, who unfortunately sustained a bad injury in that match away to Wales.
With Higgins unavailable back then, another sevens player Anna McGann and Ulsterwoman Vicky Irwin, who plays for English side Sale Sharks, alternated as Dalton’s centre partner for the remainder of a tough campaign which saw Ireland whitewashed under Greg McWilliams.
His successor Bemand had the luxury of having Higgins available and she played alongside Dalton in midfield for all three matches in Dubai as Ireland won the WXV3 title by coming from 10 points down to beat Spain in their final fixture.
In last year’s Six Nations, Dalton started both away games and Breen the three home matches inside Higgins but the picture changed again in the autumn with the former claiming the No 13 jersey on the back of a great intepros campaign for Leinster.
Up until now, the lithe Higgins has always played outside centre for Ireland, but she and Dalton swapped round for Wolfhounds in this season’s Celtic Challenge and that is the way they will line out in green against France on Saturday.
Eve Higgins, pictured after last April’s victory over Wales, is comfortable wearing whatever hat she is handed
Spoken of in her very early years as a possible successor to Nora Stapleton at outhalf, the fleet-footed Higgins has filled in on the wing for Ireland and she got a brief run at fullback for Wolfhounds away to Brython Thunder in January when Stacey Flood switched to outhalf.
With Breen able to play outhalf as well as inside centre and Higgins capable of covering Ireland further out, Bemand has been able to go with a 6:2 split on the bench for this French clash and Higgins agrees adaptability within a matchday squad is important.
“The (Celtic Challenge) opposition was not near what France will be at the weekend, but the fact that we got to play in different combinations week-in, week-out, and in combinations that we’re experiencing here in the team, it’s huge for us in connections,” she reflects.
“The fact that I got to play off Dannah (O’Brien) at 10 so much is huge and it will grow both our games. We know how to play off each other now, and it gave us invaluable experience together, especially in game scenarios.
“Also we had Scott and Hugh (Hogan, defence coach) coming to training sessions every week, so there was still that in the background and we were focusing on Six Nations coming up and what areas of our game we needed to grow, with constant feedback from them.”
The country’s top players are excited to be back in camp with Ireland keen to build upon the impressive progress of the past 12 months, which began with a 38-17 defeat against France in Le Mans when Aoife Wafer and Dalton scored late tries to reward a spirited performance.
“Those two late tries were the first we had scored against France for a while, which helps provide confidence that we’ve progressed over the last few years. I think we’ve been great as a team to put goals in place, and we’ve been achieving them over the past year.
“It was our aim to qualify for the World Cup at the first opportunity and finishing third in last season’s Six Nations gave us that. Then before going to Vancouver we beat Australia and every week the talk was that we wanted to build.
“We obviously got off to a great start at WXV1 with beating New Zealand, but then also we took a lot of leanings from the Canada defeat – we lost 21-8 but after the game everyone wanted to play the game again and fix the mistakes we made.
“From our hard work we came out of WXV1 with two wins and a second-place finish, which was huge for the team. It was a huge change from being in WXV3 the year before,” reflects Higgins.
“I think it’s really put a belief in this team that when we have our process right – we have a great coaching team behind us as well – we have such clarity, and I think every single one of us is really looking forward to going into a Six Nations again.
“We want to build on the Six Nations last year and put out great performances. Everyone just wants to do each other proud, and to actually show all the work that we’ve put in for the last number of weeks.
“We’re after doing four weeks with a different focus every week, and that gives us clarity going into this week. Everyone wants to step up and to really bring it on Saturday because that’s what the public is going to see.
“That’s why every single one of us wants to wear a green jersey. That’s our goal for every player. It’s no good just doing it in training, we want to perform on the day, and in this case show how much we’ve improved since facing France 12 months ago.”
Asked to identify a particular area of improvement, Higgins cited Ireland’s kicking game, something that was also a feature for Wolfhounds and Clovers in the Celtic Challenge with frontline outhalves O’Brien and Nicole Fowley doing plenty for their respective teams.
Ulsterman Gareth Steenson, who had such success at outhalf for Exeter Chiefs during his career, is now Ireland’s fully-fledged kicking coach having been brought in on a more limited basis before WXV1 and is helping hone that aspect of the game.
Fowley and O’Brien are joined in the squad by talented teenager Caitriona Finn while fullback Flood and centre Breen both have outhalf experience so Ireland are well-equipped to put boot to ball effectively when that is the right option.
“We have Nic and Dannah who are great kickers, and Caitriona has unbelievable distance. She’s hit some great 50:22s and cross-field kicks in the Celtic Challenge. Having that strong kicking game helps us avoid overplaying in areas of the pitch that we don’t want to.
“I think the likes of France, they’re going to want to play from anywhere and they’ve a great offloading game, so the worst thing we can do is fall into that trap of playing like them. We want to just play to our strengths, and the variety of our kicking game has really come on.”
RTE have highlighted that, in last season’s Six Nations, Ireland gained more metres (3601) from kicks than any other team in the tournament while their place-kicking was also top of the charts with 13 successes from 15 attempts representing an 87 percent return.
Higgins has played against France three times before, including that Le Mans match this weekend last year, and the teams had a couple of joint training sessions in Vancouver as they weren’t facing each other in the WXV1 tournament.
“In the first match week, we had our heaviest session against them, and it put us in a great place going into the New Zealand game to perform. We got to train against their backs then again before the USA game and I think we gained a lot of confidence from those sessions.
“France have some key star players, (Pauline) Bourdon-Sansus is one of the best nines around, they’ve (centre Gabrielle) Vernier, they’ve great forwards and it’s very much a power game so we’re aware of the threats they will bring in Belfast.”
With Ireland’s starting centres swapping jerseys since last year’s French fixture, Vernier will be Higgins’ opposite number, but Bemand’s midfield combo bring their own strengths and are well used to each other even if this is a new configuration at international level.
Over the past couple of years we’ve seen six starts for the Breen-Dalton ticket, five for Dalton-Higgins and four for Breen-Higgins. This will be a Test first for Higgins-Dalton but Eve played inside on each of the pair’s six starts together in the recent Celtic Challenge.
Higgins scored seven tries in eight outings for Wolfhounds as they retained their title, making over 800 running metres and being credited with a dozen line-breaks. There will be a lot less space on Saturday but the amiable Eve is relishing this French challenge.
An experienced player who will be winning her 22nd cap, the accomplished Higgins happily wears whatever hat she is given – literally so after last April’s win over Wales in Cork! – and her adaptability, much valued by Bemand, is a real asset to this improving Irish side.
Aoife Dalton signing autographs for fans at Ravenhill after Ireland’s final fixture of last season’s Six Nations
Ireland coach Scott Bemand with his three star centres (from left) Eve Higgins, Enya Breen and Aoife Dalton
Eve Higgins’ centre partner Aoife Dalton scored one of the tries in Ireland’s defeat to France last season (Photo by Ben Brady/INPHO)
