Amee-Leigh Costigan will captain Ireland for the first time in a Test match in Saturday’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations opener against France at the Kingspan Stadium (Kick-off 1pm).
Head Coach Scott Bemand has made just four changes to the starting team from Ireland’s last game when their 26-14 win over the USA secured a third-place finish in WXV1.
Anna McGann comes in on the right wing for the retired Eimear Considine while Eve Higgins, who was on the bench against the USA, starts in midfield, and likewise Dannah O’Brien returns at outhalf.
The only change in the pack sees Ruth Campbell, another replacement in that Z+WXV1 finale, makes her Championship debut in the secondrow.
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With Edel McMahon returning to the match-day squad on the bench, Costigan (née Murphy-Crowe) will captain Ireland for the first time, having previously led the 7s team. Although Sam Monaghan will miss the tournament and Beibhinn Parson is still sidelined after suffering a second broken leg within four months last December, the prolific winger is expected back at some point in this championship.
Furthermore, the squad has been boosted by Stacey Flood’s recovery from an ankle injury she suffered six weeks ago and which required an operation to take her place at fullback against the French.
Bemand has also shuffled around Ireland’s backrow of Brittany Hogan, now at blindside flanker, Erin King, the World Rugby Women’s Breakthrough Player of the Year who makes her Six Nations debut at openside, and Aoife Wafer at eight.
Interestingly, in a bid to counter France’s power game, Bemand has switched to a 6-2 split on the bench with Cliodhna Moloney, Siobhán McCarthy, Christy Haney, Grace Moore and Fiona Tuite joined by the returning McMahon, while Aoibheann Reilly and Enya Breen are the backline replacements.
“‘Tricky’ [aka McMahon] is going to come off the bench as a finisher, which is where I believe the game will be won and lost,” said Bemand. “Amee-Leigh, ever since coming back in from the Sevens programme, has been an absolute role-model leader in this environment.
“We believe she’s the voice of the group. If she tells the girls: ‘Do you know what, we can cope’, they will know we can cope. If she tells them: ‘Girls, we need to ramp this up’, they’ll ramp it up. We’ve got somebody that embodies what we’re trying to become as a group.
“There’s a few discussions about being a winger and a captain and I’m delighted to see France have followed suit and named [leftwinger] Marine [Ménager] as one of their captains. We’ve got a strong leadership group; Neve Jones will have a role to play in terms of speaking to the referee, and when Tricky comes on, she’ll take the captaincy and be the voice to the referee.”
This is the first time in his tenure that Bemand has opted for a 6-2 bench.
“You can’t cover everything, so you go, ‘What do we need to get our best game out there?’. There’s some disappointed backs, when they’re fighting for two spots. Part of what we’ve got in Ireland is a dynamic back five, and we want to be able to light that up.
“We believe the cavalry coming on to finish the game can hopefully set us up to get what we want to out of this fixture.”
Saturday’s match is live on Virgin Media One and BBC Northern Ireland, while there is live radio commentary available on RTÉ Radio 1.
Ireland team (v France): Stacey Flood; Anna McGann, Aoife Dalton, Eve Higgins, Amee-Leigh Costigan; Dannah O’Brien, Emily Lane; Niamh O’Dowd, Neve Jones, Linda Djougang; Ruth Campbell, Dorothy Wall; Brittany Hogan, Erin King, Aoife Wafer. Replacements: Cliodhna Moloney, Siobhán McCarthy, Christy Haney, Grace Moore, Fiona Tuite, Edel McMahon, Aoibheann Reilly, Enya Breen.
