Griffin banks on home comforts against England

Ireland captain Ciara Griffin is banking on home advantage giving her side a lift when they welcome England to Dublin’s Energia Park for the Women’s Six Nations Championship opener a week tomorrow.

Head coach Adam Griggs is targeting another top-three finish for his second campaign at the helm but Ireland face an extremely tough opening fixture against a side who have finished only one place higher in second, but 11 points clear of his side.

Playing in front of their supporters under the Friday night lights at Donnybrook will offer some home comforts though, just as it did last weekend when Ireland beat Wales in a Six Nations warm-up.

UL Bohemian and Munster back-rower Griffin said: “You could see it is a tough start, England are a great team to play against and the fact that we’re at home is an added bonus.

“You love a challenge, so we’re all looking forward to it; all focused on the first of February at 5pm. We’re looking forward to kicking off the Six Nations at home.”

Griggs promised England and all-comers a tough Test match when they visit Dublin as he looked forward to this season’s championship.

“We’ve spoken about it as a group, as a squad that we want to be a team that are difficult to beat. We don’t want teams coming, thinking that they are going to run over an Irish team and as long as we’re putting the performances in ourselves, making it hard for teams to come to Donnybrook or even when we go away — that they know they’ve been in a Test match with Ireland.

“That comes down to our own standards more than anyone else and that’s probably our biggest focus at the moment.”

With a much-changed squad, Griggs also hoped the new faces in the Irish set-up would quickly find their feet.

“It’s important to give some of the younger players a chance at this level.

Some of the younger ones that have come through have earned their place through the interprovincial series and then some of their club form as well. A couple have been through necessity as well with injury, but again, that opens the door to give them a chance.

We still have a good core of players from the last squad we were involved with, they are starting to get a really good feel for the game-plan and styles we want to look to play. We got a bit of success with that in the warm-up game against Wales at the weekend.

“That really drove us, it highlighted to our players that what we are trying to do can be successful, it can work.

“So, the young ones coming in get the chance to work with the likes of Ciara, the Sene Naoupos, the Claire Molloys who have that experience. It’s going to be a work in progress but in the next couple of years we’ll definitely see those players shine as well.”

Griggs also kept the door open to a return for former skipper Niamh Briggs, who has not featured in his last two squads.