Ladies return to scene of Six Nations success

IRELAND will be in familiar territory this weekend when they face Spain at the Caudid University in Madrid, the venue of their only ever Six Nations victory two seasons ago.

Last year Spain beat Ireland in Limerick but they avenged the loss at the European Championships in May.

Up front Jen Leacy takes the number seven shirt from Rachel Boyd, who moves to the other flank. Rachel Tucker, despite good performances on the blind-side in Ireland’s warm-up games, is on the bench. It will be the first time that Leacy will don the number seven jersey for Ireland, having played most of her rugby in the second row. The move means Germaine Healy gets the nod from the bench and she’ll be joined in the engine room by Munster lock Rosie Foley.

Sarah Jane Belton will lead the side following her appointment last November and she is confident her team can build on recent victories.

“We can definitely take a lot of good out of the matches we’ve just played but obviously, as with any game, they also served to highlight areas we needed to work on.

“We are confident of winning games and scoring tries but we know it will take a lot more hard work to produce the results we want.”

(IRELAND v Spain):, Caudid University, Madrid A Greensmith (Shannon), N Ni Chaidhan (Galwegians), S Fleming (Cooke), P Kelly (UL Bohemians), L Cantwell (UL Bohemians), S Belton (c) (UL Bohemians), T Rosser (Blackrock) F Coughlan (UL Bohemians), J Lonergan (Shannon), E Coen (UL Bohemians), R Foley (Shannon), G Healy (Blackrock), R Boyd (Cooke), J Leacy (Blackrock), J Neville (Shannon).

Replacements: M Barrett (Highfield), E Stanley (UL Bohemians), R Tucker (UL Bohemians), O Brennan (Navan) L Beamish (UL Bohemians), J O’Sullivan (Lichfield), G Davitt (Boyne).