Rugby Daily | A *new* ball size coming this Autumn, Ireland team named vs Wales
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You're very welcome along to Thursday's Rugby Daily. I'm Cameron Hill. Now coming up for you today, Ireland have named their team for Saturday's Six Nations clash with Wales in Belfast. James Tracy makes a surprising admission about Leinster's 2018 Champions Cup triumph and a new ball size in women's rugby is dividing opinions among players to say the least. But first up today, Ireland head coach Scott Beeman has named his team for Saturday's Women's Six Nations clash with Wales in Belfast. There's one change from the defeat to France last time out. Eve Higgins replaces Nancy McGillivray at inside centre, while there's a possible debut for Niamh Gallagher off the bench. So just to go through the team in full, the back three is unchanged.
It's Robin O'Connor, Bevan Parsons and full-back Stacey Flood. Linking up with Eve Higgins in the centre is Aoife Dalton. Dana O'Brien and Emily Lane continue their halfback partnership. It's an unchanged front row of Elena Perry and Linda Dugang packing down either side of Cliona Maloney-McDonald. Dorothy Waugh and Fiona Tuitt get the nod in the engine room once again. And that all-action back row of Brittany Hogan, Erin King and Aoife Waifer continue their partnership. On the bench then, Scott Beaman has opted for a 6-2 split this week, so Niamh Jones, Saif McGrath, Eilish Cahill, Ruth Campbell, Sam Monaghan and Grace Moore cover the Fords, while joining Gallagher from a backs point of view is Katie Whelan.
Now they're chasing a strong end to the campaign with Scotland coming to the Aviva Stadium for their final round clash on Sunday week. 25,000 tickets have been sold for that game to date. And you have to go back to 2020 for the last time that Ireland won three games in a Six Nations campaign. Wales meanwhile head into the weekend chasing a first win in the competition since 2024. But Ford's coach Alan O'Connor warns they've shown that they can pose a real threat to Ireland this weekend.
Wales are going really well. They got a bonus point against England, didn't they? They scored four tries against the world champs, so fair play to them. Half-time score against France as well, I think it was 7-0 maybe.
What team has Ireland named for the Six Nations clash with Wales?
They're definitely on the right direction and it's our job to stop their momentum. Returning to Belfast this weekend must be a pretty special occasion for yourself as well. Yeah, it's great. Hopefully the family will be there too. Hopefully we get a good crowd. It's always a good atmosphere up there and the place is probably buzzing from the semi-final on the weekend too. So hopefully we get a good crowd coming out.
What surprising admission did James Tracy make about Leinster's Champions Cup win?
So that defeat to France last time out means that another third-placed finish is likely the best-case scenario. So that defeat to France last time out means that another third-placed finish is likely the best-case scenario for Ireland at this point. Locked at 7-all at half-time, Les Bleus then pulled away for a 26 points to 7 win in Clermont. Now, was Scott Beaman too quick to dip into the replacements in the second half of that game? Former Ireland front-rower Fiona Hayes joined Owen Shahan on Wednesday night rugby and feels it might have been ill-advised to take off a few players who had been playing so well up to that point. But she didn't go as far as suggesting that these were pre-planned substitutions that Beeman was reluctant to dither from.
Do you know what? I mean, he's a top level coach, Owen, so maybe not. Maybe he saw something in those players that he just wanted to freshen up. Maybe the girls on the bench had been absolutely itching to go. So I don't. It's just my personal opinion when I looked at it and I taught Dorothy I'll give you examples I taught Dorothy Wall was having the game of her life I taught Cliona Maloney I think we could have dragged another 10 minutes out of her she was absolutely everywhere in saying that the bench could have come on and that could have been the turning point of a game so that's your job as a coach to make those decisions but
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