Aoife Wafer absent again as Ireland name team to take on world champions

The sides face off in a group finale on Sunday.

BRIGHTON ROCK: Head Coach Scott Bemand.

Back row star Aoife Wafer will miss out yet again when Ireland take on the world champions in their World Cup Pool C tie in Brighton on Sunday, but head coach Scott Bemand insists she will be available for a quarter-final a week later.

Wafer hasn’t played since the Six Nations in the spring and hopes that she might be able to take to the park on England’s south coast against New Zealand after opening defeats of Japan and Spain in Northampton haven’t materialised.

“If you look at Aoife’s eyes, she's ready to go now,” said Bemand. “She's done a great job in her rehab. The specialists that have supported her, her own commitment to her own game and her own physical conditioning, so when she's ready to step back on, she's ready to step back on.

“With Aoife, she's an incredibly committed individual. We won't see any ring-rust. She'll be ready to go. We're really confident. We could have considered picking her this week. We've made a decision that actually for her best opportunity, and the team's best opportunity, is to go hard in training again next week and we'll see where that stands to us for the following week.”

Whether they qualify as pool winners or runners-up is all that is on the line this weekend but Bemand has gone with a strong 15 that has one or two interesting selections calss in the forward pack.

The backline is as expected with No.10 Dannah O’Brien partnered at scrum-half by Aoibheann Reilly. And Beibhinn Parsons returns to the wing in place of Anna McGann who returns to the replacements.

Ellena Perry, the former England player who only joined the Ireland squad weeks before the tournament, has been preferred to Niamh O’Dowd at looshead. Perry is more of a physical presence than O’Dowd and played eleven times for the Red Roses.

Co-captain Sam Monaghan is fit enough to start again despite coming off early against Spain last time with a hip injury while Grace Moore who, like McGann, got on the scoresheet against the Spaniards, is named with Fiona Tuite out with a minor knock.

Like Wafer, Tuite is expected to be available next time out. Enya Breen, who has covered midfield and ten off the bench, is another to sit this one out, her place on the bench goes to Nancy McGillivray. Stacey Flood will be the back-up out-half.

Ireland (v New Zealand): S Flood; B Parsons, A Dalton, E Higgins, AL Costigan; D O’Brien, A Reilly, E Perry, N Jones, L Djougang; R Campbell, S Monaghan; G Moore, E McMahon, B Hogan.

Replacements: C Moloney-MacDonald, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, E Corri-Fallon, C Boles, E Lane, N McGillivray, A McGann.