Ireland declare their hand ahead of Rugby World Cup campaign

Head coach Scott Bemand is preparing his players for the tournament in England.

PAWS, ENGAGE: Siobhán McCarthy, right, with her Sister Kate and their dog Scottie. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

The die has been cast for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Confirmation on Monday morning of Ireland’s 32-strong squad means all 16 panels have been named and shared. Now for the hardest part: that last, slow stretch before it begins.

England’s hosts and the USA will get it all underway next Friday week when they meet in Pool A at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. For Ireland, the campaign kicks in two days later against Japan at Northampton’s Franklin’s Gardens.

Head coach Scott Bemand didn’t give rise to any causes célèbres with his choice of troops, but such is the nature of these things that there are always winners and losers, and there will be a clump of players coming to terms this week with shattered dreams.

Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird played just two weeks ago, in the first warm-up against Scotland in Cork, but didn’t make the cut. Neither did young Ailish Quinn who made her debut off the bench that day at Virgin Media Park.

Jane Clohessy featured in the Six Nations in the spring but is one of 10 players named in the original 37-strong training panel that, for one reason or another, hasn’t made the crossover from a pre-season that started at the foothills of June to the tournament itself.

Injuries have fashioned decisions. Dorothy Wall and Erin King, two absolute gems in the Ireland pack, will miss the World Cup with injuries suffered in the course of that Six Nations,. Christy Haney sits it out too on the back of recent hamstring troubles.

Haney’s struggles opened the door for Ellena Perry to debut for Ireland against Canada in Belfast last Friday, five years after she earned the last of her eleven caps with England, and in the wake of Bemand’s statement that they can’t afford to “carry” too many players.

The Englishman has included Aoife Wafer, the barnstorming back row who was player of the tournament in the Six Nations, but who hasn’t played since the back end of that campaign after damaging knee ligaments.

In the mix with her is co-captain Edel McMahon who sat out the games against the Scots and Canada with her own knee issues, but the Clare woman is much further along the route to recuperation than Wafer. Watch those spaces.

Looked at in this light, the returns to action in recent weeks of co-captain Sam Monaghan, Beibhinn Parsons and Eimear Corri-Fallon after their own lengthy layoffs have been well-timed for a squad that is targeting a semi-final.

“We've a great group of girls here and everyone obviously wants to put their hand up for selection for the World Cup because it's so special,” said centre Eve Higgins during the warm-up phase. “Ireland hasn't been to a World Cup since 2017.

“It only comes around every four years and it's an extremely hard competition to qualify for. So it'd be a huge thing for every single person, a huge honour to represent their country in a World Cup.” The injury losses weaken their case but Ireland have used the last two seasons wisely and carefully in terms of building experience and options while upping their performance levels and striving for greater competitiveness.

The first-choice back line almost picks itself. It possesses a howitzer boot in fly-half Dannah O’Brien, a superb midfield in Aoife Dalton and Eve Higgins, and a richly talented back three players in the likes of Stacey Flood, Beibhinn Parsons and Amee-Leigh Costigan.

The front row is deep in experience with Niamh O’Dowd, Neve Jones and Linda Djougang buttressed by Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald, Sadbh McGrath and Perry, and there are a number of options in the second row despite Wall’s absence.

The back row will miss Wafer, as long as she is sidelined, and King, but Hogan is a stalwart at No.8, McMahon is a big-game player when fit while Grace Moore put up her hand with a player-of-the-match run against Scotland.

Ireland can’t boast the in-game nous of some of the biggest hitters but Bemand could well name a XV with players carrying an absolute minimum of 17 caps apiece and that’s a big step from some of the ‘greener’ outfits of the recent past.

It’s on the bench where that backbone will be seriously stretched with the Pool C challengers destined to dip deeper into their locker for more than a few players for whom Test rugby is still very much a relatively new phenomenon.

Recent new caps, Ivana Kiripati and Nancy McGillivray, may yet play roles and the ever-present prospect of injury in rugby will keep others beyond the 32 on their toes for some time yet.