Ulster’s Sadhbh McGrath is back on the Ireland bench for the first time since the Scotland game last April
BY RICHARD BULLICK
SKIPPER Edel McMahon returns to captain an Ireland team showing five changes from last weekend’s 49-5 defeat against England for this Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations showdown with Wales at Rodney Parade in Newport (12 noon)
Having missed the England game in Cork through injury, openside McMahon makes a welcome comeback as a direct replacement for flanker Erin King, who had knee surgery on Thursday and will miss not only the rest of the tournament but this summer’s World Cup.
Ballymena native Neve Jones and fellow Ulsterwoman Brittany Hogan retain their places in the Ireland pack, though the latter’s provincial colleague Fiona Tuite drops to the bench with Ruth Campbell preferred as Dorothy Wall’s engineroom partner.
There are first call-ups to the matchday squad this Six Nations for two Ulsterwomen, flanker Claire Boles from Fermanagh and young Donegal prop Sadhbh McGrath, who won her first cap aged just 18 on Ireland’s last trip to Wales two years ago.
Regular loosehead Niamh O’Dowd, whose sinbinning against England after scrummaging struggles proved costly, drops out altogether after a torrid afternoon which also saw her have to leave the field for a head injury assessment.
So Munster’s Siobhan McCarthy is promoted to start for the first time in a green jersey with McGrath taking her place on the Ireland bench after an injury-ravaged gap of almost 12 months since she was an unused sub in the final fixture of last season’s Six Nations.
Olympian Boles, who Ireland head coach Scott Bemand praised at his press conference on Thursday for her work in camp, takes over the No 20 jersey from Grace Moore on a bench again showing a 5:3 split unlike the first two fixtures against France and Italy.
Despite the absence of King and Moore, there is somewhat surprisingly no place as back row cover for dynamic Munsterwoman Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird, who was released to start for her club Old Belvedere in their AIL semi-final defeat to Boles’ Railway Union last Sunday.
There are two changes to Bemand’s back division, one of which sees experienced campaigner Molly Scuffil-McCabe brought straight in to wear the No 9 jersey after not featuring in Ireland’s three matches in the Championship so far.
Having had to sit out the England game in her native Cork through injury, experienced Clovers skipper Enya Breen – who captained reland twice last autumn – gets her first start of this Six Nations alongside Aoife Dalton in the centre, with Eve Higgins going to the bench.
Higgins has had an excellent campaign so far but has taken a fair bit of physical punishment along the way so Breen gets her chance alongside the durable Dalton, one of only three players to have been on the field for every minute of Ireland’s first three matches.
The other two ever-presents are fullback Stacey Flood and winger Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe, who scored the try which put Ireland in front against England at Musgrave Park on a proud day the Munsterwoman was filling in as skipper in the absence of McMahon.
Those two sevens stalwarts are again joined in the back three for a fourth consecutive match by Anna McGann, the hat-trick hero of Ireland’s 54-12 record rout of Italy in round two, while Dannah O’Brien continues in the No 10 jersey.
Old Belvedere clubmates O’Brien, whose well-weighted kick created Murphy-Crowe’s try against England, and Dalton, who won Player of the Match against Italy, have been selected in their 23rd consecutive Ireland matchday squad while still aged just 21.
The then teenage Dalton made her Six Nations debut in the corresponding game away to Wales two years ago, in which her centre partner Breen sustained a serious injury that kept her sidelined for the next 12 months.
With Breen capable of covering outhalf, her return this weekend means no place in the matchday squad for Connacht captain Nicole Fowley, who had an afternoon to forget after taking over from O’Brien for the final quarter against England last time out.
A youthful O’Brien made her first Six Nations appearance off the bench on Ireland’s last visit to Wales and, had Breen not been fit, there is a possibility Bemand may even have handed highly-rated teenager Caitriona Finn the No 22 jersey and a potential first cap.
Scuffil-McCabe’s inclusion alongside O’Brien means the starting scrumhalf against England, Emily Lane, drops to the bench with no place in the matchday 23 for Connacht’s Aoibheann Reilly, who wore the No 9 jersey for the comprehensive victory over Italy.
Bemand’s decision to continue with the traditional 5:3 bench split despite Breen’s return means another opportunity for Wicklow winger Vicky Elmes-Kinlan, who made her first Six Nations appearance as a replacement against England.
Elmes-Kinlan again gets the nod over Katie Corrigan, who had scored a try in each of Ireland’s three home matches last spring and looked sharp for Old Belvedere in last weekend’s AIL semi-final.
Munster prop Siobhan McCarthy (right) will make her first start for Ireland this Sunday against Wales
The Ireland head coach has been hoping star turn Beibhinn Parsons, who has broken her leg twice since last summer, might make it back before the end of this Six Nations but after this there is just next Saturday’s clash with Scotland in Edinburgh to come.
Regular first choice Jones again gets the nod over Cliodhna Moloney at hooker, who joins 20-year-old McGrath and tighthead Linda Djougang’s understudy Haney as Ireland’s front row cover on Sunday.
The second row rotation – which saw three players get two starts each in the first three matches of this Championship – continues with Campbell coming in for her Old Belvedere clubmate Tuite.
McMahon’s return in place of the stricken King means that the back row which started in the notable victories over Wales, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand last year has been reunited albeit that Hogan and taliswoman Aoife Wafer have since swapped jerseys.
Ireland had an incredibly 45-0 away win against Wales in 2021 but were beaten in Dublin the following year and then thumped 31-5 at Cardiff Arms Park on their last trip before turning the tables with last April’s superb 36-5 victory in Cork.
Eight of that team will start again in Newport, with that formidable back row being joined by Djougang, Jones, Wall, O’Brien and Breen against a Welsh side who have a new head coach for this Six Nations in outgoing Gloucester Hartpury supremo Sean Lynn.
IRELAND: Stacey Flood; Anna McGann, Aoife Dalton, Enya Breen, Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe; Dannah O’Brien, Molly Scuffil-McCabe; Siobhan McCarthy, Neve Jones, Linda Djougang, Ruth Campbell, Dorothy Wall, Brittany Hogan, Edel McMahon (capt), Aoife Wafer. Replacements: Cliodhna Moloney, Sadhbh McGrath, Christy Haney, Fiona Tuite, Claire Boles; Emily Lane, Eve Higgins, Vicky Elmes-Kinlan.
Enya Breen and Aoife Dalton are back together as the centre pairing for Ireland in Newport on Sunday
Leinster lock Ruth Campbell has displaced Ulster’s Fiona Tuite as Dorothy Wall’s second row partner (©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo)
