Women's

Breen in for debut as Ireland Women change five

Inpho
Ireland Women have made five changes to their team for Saturday’s clash with France in the Women’s Six Nations.

Ireland Women have made five changes to their team for Saturday’s clash with France in the Women’s Six Nations.

Enya Breen is set to make her debut as she comes in for Michelle Claffey in the centres alongside Sene Naoupu, while Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird makes her first start of the Championship at hooker.

Elsewhere Juliet Short returns in the second row, while Fiona Reidy starts at tighthead and Claire McLaughlin will play No.8.

Following the defeat to Italy last time out, coach Adam Griggs is expecting an improved performance against Les Bleues.

He said: “We have a big fortnight ahead of us with two tough matches to finish this competition off. We’ve put a lot of work in since Italy to rectify some of the areas that we felt let us down and cost us that result.

“We need to be clinical when we get into good areas of the field and put teams under pressure with our physicality and strong defence to make teams work harder for their points.

“There have been a lot of positives in each game we’ve played and we must keep building on them along with our work-ons to put together a more comprehensive performance.

“France is no mean feat and we know they are coming to Dublin to try and get a result.

“They are the current champions for a reason and are coming here on the back of two good wins, but we know if we can get our detail right we can put them under pressure and make them have to re think the way they approach this game.”

Ireland Women’s team to face France:

15. Lauren Delany 14. Eimear Considine 13. Enya Breen 12. Sene Naoupu 11. Alison Miller 10. Nicole Fowley 9. Kathryn Dane 1. Laura Feely 2. Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird 3. Fiona Reidy 4. Nichola Fryday 5. Juliet Short 6. Ciara Griffin (c) 7. Claire Molloy 8. Claire McLaughlin

PReplacements: 16. Emma Hooban 17. Lindsay Peat 18. Linda Djougang 19. Anna Caplice 20. Claire Boles 21. Nicole Cronin 22. Ellen Murphy 23. Megan Williams