BY RICHARD BULLICK
UL Bohs fullback Aoife Corey will make her Ireland debut as the last line of defence in a team missing her talismanic namesake Aoife Wafer for Saturday’s closing Guinness Six Nations game against Scotland in Edinburgh (2.30pm).
Ireland’s team shows four personnel changes and two positional switches from the run-on line-up for last Sunday’s comprehensive 40-14 victory over Wales in Newport, though Wafer appears to be the only alteration forced by injury.
The loss of loose forward Wafer, who was voted Player of the Round for the second time this Six Nations after her Player of the Match performance in last Sunday’s away win against Wales, has been ruled out of this final fixture by a knee injury.
The brilliant 22-year-old received a fair bit of attention during a stoppage midway through the second half of the Welsh encounter but kept playing and scored her second try of the afternoon shortly afterwards, so Irish fans will hope this injury isn’t too serious.
Wafer’s absence has led to a reshuffle in the back five of the scrum, with Ulster’s Brittany Hogan going to No 8 and Dorothy Wall shifting from second row to her original role with Ireland of blindside flanker.
That positional switch for Wall facilitates the return of Fiona Tuite to partner Ruth Campbell in the engineroom, with the Ulster lock’s place on the bench being taken by Munster utility forward Jane Clohessy, daughter of former Munster and Ireland prop Peter.
The other change in the starting pack sees fit-again Leinster loosehead Niamh O’Dowd return to the No 1 jersey in place of Munster’s Siobhan McCarthy, who made an impressive first start for Ireland against Wales in the Wexford woman’s absence.
O’Dowd, who was sinbinned in the second half of the 49-5 defeat against England, has recovered from the arm injury which kept her out of the Welsh game but young Ulsterwoman Sadhbh McGrath retains the No 18 jersey with McCarthy dropping out altogether.
Ballymena native Neve Jones and durable tighthead Linda Djougang, who bagged a brace of tries in Newport last Sunday, take their usual places in the Ireland front row with the experienced pair of Cliodhna Moloney and Christy Haney as bench back-up.
Hogan wore the green No 8 jersey in Bemand’s first 12 matches at the helm so will be comfortable returning to that role in the absence of Wafer, flanked by the Exeter Chiefs pair of Wall and Ireland skipper Edel McMahon.
Wall and McMahon made an astonishing 63 tackles between them, with none missed, in the one PWR match this season where they were the wing forward combo for Exeter and we can expect plenty of hard-hitting from Ireland’s back row against the Scots.
The abrasive, versatile Clohessy profits from the current injury-enforced absence of squad co-captain Sam Monaghan and Eimear Corri, and gets the nod over the likes of last summer’s Ireland Under 20 captain Jane Neill and raw teenage giant Alma Atagamen.
Ulster flanker Claire Boles from Fermanagh, who won her first cap since 2019 when coming off the bench in Newport, retains the No 20 jersey ahead of Grace Moore and dynamic Munsterwoman Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird, who appears pointedly out of favour.
The changes in Ireland’s back three seem largely experimental as first choice fullback Stacey Flood – fantastic last Sunday – takes a turn on the bench to accommodate the inclusion of the previously uncapped Corey from Clare in the No 15 jersey.
Munster vice-captain Corey was unlucky not to be named in Ireland’s initial squad of 40 which commenced preparations for the Six Nations but was subsequently called up in light of injuries to Flood and Meabh Deely, who started last season’s Scotland clash.
An outhalf or inside centre for Ireland in her previous sabbatical from the World Series sevens circuit, Flood was sprung from the bench at fullback by Bemand on her return to the Test arena for last September’s match against Australia at Ravenhill.
She started all three matches at the subsequent WXV1 tournament in Vancouver, including the stunning upset of world champions New Zealand and the victory over USA which clinched a superb runners-up place for Ireland.
Flood has consolidated her position in this Six Nations tournament, being one of three players along with winger Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe and centre Aoife Dalton to have been on the field for every minute of Ireland’s campaign to date.
However, the second fullback berth is one of the relatively few positions in Ireland’s potential World Cup squad which looks relatively wide open at the minute and now Corey has been given a golden opportunity to stake her claim.
Ella Roberts has dropped out of the reckoning and teenager Robyn O’Connor been exclusively used for sevens this winter, though another option as well as Corey and Deely might be young gun Caitriona Finn.
The highly-regarded Finn, who was brought to Canada as part of Bemand’s WXV1 squad aged just 18, is perhaps the closest like-for-like alternative to Flood in that she is also a useful left-footer and likewise seen initially as a 10-12 rather than fullback.
It might have been hoped that the brilliant Beibhinn Parsons would be fit to feature before the end of this Six Nations but it is sensible that the star winger isn’t being rushed back after breaking her leg twice in the past nine months.
In her ongoing absence, Bemand has given Vicky Elmes-Kinlan a start on the right wing in place of Anna McGann, Ireland’s hat-trick hero from the record 54-12 rout of Italy in Parma in round two of the Six Nations last month.
Paris Olympian Elmes-Kinlan of Wicklow made her debut against Australia in Belfast last September and has come off the bench for McGann in both the defeat to England at Musgrave Park and win against Wales in Newport.
This change would also appear to be a case of controlled experimentation ahead of this summer’s World Cup, squad rotation and a bit of freshening up for an Ireland team which has back-to-back away matches against their celtic cousins with a six-day turnaround.
What is especially interesting though is that Elmes-Kinlan has clearly edged ahead of Katie Corrigan, who as an 18-year-old rookie scored tries in each of Ireland’s three home matches in last season’s Six Nations, in the wing pecking order.
With McGann having made the most of her opportunity this Six Nations, and both Murphy-Crowe and Parsons selection certainties if fit, Corrigan and Elmes-Kinlan are likely to be competing for a single spot in this summer’s World Cup squad.
For the first time in this Six Nations, Bemand hasn’t made a change at scrumhalf between matches so Molly Scuffil-McCabe continues in the No 9 jersey alongside ever-present starting outhalf Dannah O’Brien.
Emily Lane retains the bench berth, meaning disappointment for Aoibheann Reilly whose sole start came against Italy in between cameo appearances off the bench in the home matches against France and England.
Enya Breen is retained alongside Dalton in the centre, meaning that one of Ireland’s eight Team of the Championship nominees, Eve Higgins, is again on the bench having started the first three fixtures.
Clovers skipper Breen was a replacement for the first two matches, missed the England game through injury and then started at inside centre against Wales before moving to outhalf for the last quarter. She kicked two excellent conversions for the visitors that day.
The other Irish players to make the shortlist from which the ceremonial line-up will be chosen are fullback Flood, wing Murphy-Crowe, centre Dalton, hooker Jones, prop Djougang and loose forwards Wafer and the now-injured Erin King.
Among the Irish contenders to miss out on nominations are outhalf O’Brien and second row Wall despite their fantastic contribution to a campaign which should see the girls in green finish third for a second consecutive season.
It would take improbable mathematics for Ireland to be denied a top three placing but they are very keen to complete a hat-trick of away wins in this campaign while Scotland will be desperate to make amends for losing to Italy at this weekend’s venue earlier this month.
IRELAND (v Scotland): Aoife Corey; Vicky Elmes-Kinlan, Aoife Dalton, Enya Breen, Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe; Dannah O’Brien, Molly Scuffil-McCabe; Niamh O’Dowd, Neve Jones, Linda Djougang, Ruth Campbell, Fiona Tuite, Dorothy Wall, Edel McMahon (capt), Brittany Hogan. Replacements: Cliodhna Moloney, Sadhbh McGrath, Christy Haney, Jane Clohessy, Claire Boles; Emily Lane, Eve Higgins, Stacey Flood.
