{"id":327125,"date":"2025-08-08T05:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T05:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327125\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T05:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T05:50:12","slug":"ireland-womens-rugby-coach-defends-capping-two-ex-england-players-in-world-cup-prep-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/327125\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland women\u2019s rugby coach defends capping two ex-England players in World Cup prep \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand<\/a> has defended the inclusion of two new players in Ireland\u2019s<\/a> World Cup<\/a> preparation.<\/p>\n

It comes after former England<\/a> international Ellena Perry was named to make her debut off the bench in Saturday\u2019s warm-up match against Canada in Belfast. <\/p>\n

Perry, who earned the last of her 11 England caps in 2020 and therefore satisfies World Rugby<\/a>\u2019s stand down rules for switching nations, qualifies through an Irish grandparent. <\/p>\n

She was brought into the set-up a few weeks ago but, with tighthead prop Christy Haney struggling to make the World Cup squad due to a hamstring injury, Bemand has decided to play Perry as loosehead cover on the bench. <\/p>\n

Perry is the second new player from outside the Irish system given a debut in as many weeks. Last weekend, Exeter centre Nancy McGillivray, who has been named in England squads without ever being capped, debuted after qualifying through her Irish-born father. <\/p>\n

She has been on Ireland\u2019s radar for some time, but only became available after her England contract expired in June. <\/p>\n

Both Perry and McGillivray are expected to be named in the final World Cup squad, to be announced on Monday. Perry is likely to come in for the injured Haney, while McGillivray is not expected to oust any of Eve Higgins, Aoife Dalton or Enya Breen, Ireland\u2019s centres from the Six Nations. Instead, an outside back is likely to make way. <\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s game in Belfast, Bemand was asked if introducing players from outside the system so close to the competition risked upsetting the squad dynamic. \u201cIf done incorrectly [yes],\u201d he said. \u201cBut with Christy [Haney] picking up the hamstring niggle we needed to bring in and supplement front row. So actually, everything has been done well, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former England prop Ellena Perry in line to make Ireland debut against CanadaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"NancyNancy McGillivray only became available after her England contract expired in June. Photograph: INPHO\/ Ben Brady <\/p>\n

\u201cElle [Perry] is a good player, and she\u2019s a really good person, having worked with her before. She\u2019s known to a good few of the girls [Perry is teammates of Neve Jones and Sam Monaghan at Gloucester] and they would endorse that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the new caps can be explained by injury and waiting for contracts to expire, that Ireland looked externally may send a message that the current development pathways don\u2019t have World Cup-ready players. Uncapped Ulster and Railway prop Sophie Barrett was one name overlooked by the inclusion of Perry. <\/p>\n

Yet, other inclusions, such as the potential World Cup place for Under-20 forward Beth Buttimer, would push back against that narrative, one which Bemand is keen to dispel. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the number of players now coming through from the women\u2019s national talent squad, in girls that are getting touch points through Sevens, through Celtic Challenge, through the Under-20s, our depth is night and day to how it looked two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSophie\u2019s [Barrett] nearly ready and if we had to call Sophie up, we\u2019d be confident in what Sophie\u2019s capabilities are. She also hasn\u2019t played Test match rugby yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIvana Kiripati, Ailish Quinn, Jemima Adams Verde … we\u2019ve got three players that have had touch points with the 20s in the near recent past. Ailish came on and got a first cap last week against Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo girls coming through the pathway, through the Under-20s is significant. It\u2019s brilliant. I\u2019m excited for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

IRELAND (v Canada, World cup-warm-up, Affidea Stadium, Belfast, Saturday, 12pm): <\/b>Stacey Flood (Railway Union\/Leinster); B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College\/Connacht), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere\/Leinster), Enya Breen (Blackrock College\/Munster), Anna McGann (Railway Union); Dannah O\u2019Brien (Old Belvedere\/Leinster), Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College\/Connacht); Niamh O\u2019Dowd (Old Belvedere\/Leinster), Neve Jones (Gloucester Hartpury), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere\/Leinster); Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere\/Leinster), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere\/Ulster); Grace Moore (Trailfinders\/IQ Rugby), Ivana Kiripati (Creggs\/Connacht), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere\/Ulster).<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/b> Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Ellena Perry (Gloucester Hartpury\/IQ Rugby)*, Sadhbh McGrath (Cooke\/Ulster), Eimear Corri Fallon (Blackrock College\/Leinster), Sam Monaghan (Gloucester Hartpury\/IQ Rugby), Claire Boles (Railway Union\/Ulster), Emily Lane (Blackrock College\/Ulster), Eve Higgins (Railway Union\/Leinster).<\/p>\n

*Denotes uncapped player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has defended the inclusion of two new players in Ireland\u2019s World Cup preparation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,10153,4214,117945,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-327125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-ireland-womens-rugby","12":"tag-rugby-world-cup","13":"tag-scott-bemand","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114991584161164333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}