Wales and Ireland set for Six Nations opener

3 years ago 43

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Gwen Crabb of Wales takes on Nichola Fryday of Ireland

Venue: Arms Park, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 25 March Kick-off: 14:15 GMT
Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app; BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app

Wales could hand a debut to Royal New Zealand Navy officer Kate Williams in Saturday's Six Nations opener against Ireland at the Cardiff Arms Park.

Swansea-born Williams is named among the replacements, while Bethan Lewis is preferred at number eight for Wales.

The visitors will hand a debut to Ulster's 18-year-old prop Sadhbh McGrath while Niamh O'Dowd could follow suit from the replacements bench.

Nichola Fryday captains the side from the second row alongside Sam Monaghan.

There are Six Nations debuts for Ireland's Meabh Deely, Aoife Dalton and Natasja Behan in the backline.

However, Edel McMahon and Aoife Wafer have been ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

Wales are without Alisha Butchers and Donna Rose, who both suffered serious knee injuries at the World Cup and will miss the entire campaign.

Keira Bevan returns at scrum-half for head coach Ioan Cunningham, who has also made a couple of positional changes ahead of the match.

Carys Williams-Morris moves to the wing while Sisilia Tuipulotu, who made her Wales debut the last time the two sides met, packs down in the front row having transitioned from lock to prop.

Both sides are missing key figures as a result of them competing for their respective nations' sevens teams.

Ireland are without backs Beibhinn Parsons and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, while Wales are missing wing Jasmine Joyce.

Eve Higgins and Lucy Mulhall, who both featured in last year's meeting between Ireland and Wales, are also on sevens duty and unavailable to Greg McWilliams.

View from both camps

Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham and Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams

Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham: "We are excited to get started and cannot wait to kick off the tournament.

"We know Ireland will pose a formidable challenge but we finished third in last season's TikTok Six Nations and want to improve on that.

"As a team, we know we can create opportunities and we just need to finish them off and score more tries."

Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams: "The start of a Championship campaign is always an exciting time.

"We come into this weekend ready to get to task against a strong Welsh side.

"We have had a good block of preparation and this is the start of the next chapter on our journey, which we started as a group in Japan last summer."

Line-ups

Wales: C Keight; L Neumann, H Jones (capt), K Lake, C Williams-Morris; E Snowsill, K Bevan; G Pyrs, K Jones, S Tuipulotu, A Fleming, G Crabb, G Evans, A Callender, B Lewis

Replacements: K Evans, C Thomas, C Hale, K Williams, S Harries, F Lewis, L George, H Bluck

Ireland: M Deely; A Doyle, A Dalton, E Breen, N Behan; N Cronin, M Scuffil-McCabe; S McGrath, N Jones, L Djougang, N Fryday (capt), S Monaghan, D Wall, M Og O'Leary, B Hogan.

Replacements: D Nic a Bhaird, N O'Dowd, C Haney, J Brown, G Moore, H O'Connor, D O'Brien, V Irwin.

Last time they met

Having lost nine of their previous 10 meetings against Ireland, Wales threw form out of the window to win 27-19 at the RDS Arena, Dublin last year.

Tries from Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Linda Djougang to a score from Carys Phillips had the hosts 14-5 ahead after a hugely competitive first half.

Welsh replacement Donna Rose crossed twice in the second half, with Jasmine Joyce and Hannah Jones also going over.

Match facts

Head-to-head

Last year's 27-19 win for Wales in Dublin ended a seven-game losing streak against Ireland.
The last time the side's met at the Cardiff Arms Park, Ireland scored seven tries on the way to a whitewash 45-0 victory.
Ireland have won the wooden spoon five times in the competition, one less than Wales' six.

Wales