Ireland coach hoping women's rugby side can play in Aviva at some point

Over 44,000 tickets have been sold for Ireland's Six Nations clash with England at Twickenham. 

Ireland's Enya Breen and Beibhinn Parsons celebrate after Aoife Wafer scores a try in the Six Nations against Wales. Picture: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Ireland have declared a full deck for Saturday’s Six Nations clash with England at Twickenham with Aoife Wafer and Linda Djougang both back training after suffering injuries last weekend against Wales.

And head coach Scott Bemand is hoping that the upcoming experience at the home of English rugby can be replicated one day at the Aviva Stadium, where the Republic of Ireland soccer team has played twice in recent times.

Both Wafer and Djougang left the field at Virgin Media Park in Cork before the end of the 36-5 defeat of the Welsh with the latter in particular looking very uncomfortable as she departed but head coach Scott Bemand gave positive updates on Tuesday.

“Linda and Aoife took a bit of a bang, which left us with 14 at the end [of the game]. Rugby is a collision sport, people have been recovering well this week and both are expected to be available,” said the Englishman.

Bemand spent eight seasons on the coaching staff with England’s Red Roses and knows all too well the capabilities of a side that has won the last half-dozen Six Nations titles and four Grand Slams during the same period.

The reigning champions and World Cup finalists have steamrolled through Italy, Wales and Scotland already in the Championship. They hammered Ireland 48-0 in Cork this time last year. It will be a long afternoon in London for the visitors.

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand. Picture: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

"I am looking forward to it,” Bemand said.” The nature of professional sport, your coaching environments and playing environments, you sometimes move clubs.

"Going back, I'm still pretty close with some of the coaching staff. It's been good to see them going well, but it's a great opportunity to go to Twickenham off the back of a win and see what we can do there.” 

That win against Wales was Ireland’s first in the Six Nations since 2022, but England are different gravy given they have scored 140 points and conceded just ten in three games so far with Italy and Scotland both kept scoreless.

Over 44,000 tickets have been sold for the game and the large home crowd will no doubt be expecting a number of tries against a side that finished with the wooden spoon last year but has shown clear signs of improvement under the new boss this term.

“We have some ideas that we look at in terms of some areas of the game. In terms of the occasion, I think you're going into Twickenham, we talked about a little bit of preparation for playing in a big arena with a big crowd.

"Generally I think the girls get up for these kinds of occasions, it's exciting. We want to be at the forefront of this, it would be lovely in the not-too-distant future to do something similar at the Aviva.

“We're lucky enough to partake in a game like this where they’ll have a crowd and where the noise is a little bit different for the girls’ internationals. Like a constant noise, rather than sort of the highs and lows, it’s brilliant.

"It’s really class to see and I think hopefully if our girls can get used to playing in it, and we can one day try and replicate that over here, I think it would be really class for the women’s game in Ireland.”