Ireland women’s head coach Adam Griggs sang the praises of Laura Sheehan after his charges returned to Six Nations action with a 21-7 victory over Italy at Donnybrook Stadium on Saturday night.

With last Thursday’s inconclusive Covid-19 test on an Irish player ruling Eimear Considine – and replacement Laura Feely – out of contention, Sheehan stepped into the breach to indirectly replace her UL Bohemians team-mate in the back-three. It was a daunting task for the Cork woman, but she produced a fine display on both sides of the ball in this delayed fourth-round fixture.

“We had our contingency if things were to go wrong and again that’s the beauty of having the wider squad that’s so competitive at the moment. You look at Laura Sheehan, I thought she was fantastic tonight. Her defence was outstanding. She made some really good reads. She got on the ball and was dynamic in her carries,” Griggs remarked in his post-match press conference.

“I’m delighted for her, because she’s been working away really hard and pushing the other players. To get her shot and take it in the way she did, that’s testament to the group. Those players [Considine and Feely], we’ve just got to look after them now and make sure that they’re fit and healthy.”

When the fixture list was initially drawn up for this year’s Six Nations, this was expected to be Ireland’s final home game of the campaign. Instead, they now play host to France next weekend – Les Bleus having agreed to make the journey over to Dublin in a grand gesture of goodwill.

Ireland’s amateur players would have been forced to self-isolate upon their return from France if he had gone ahead as planned in Lille. But while this venue change is a most welcome development, the approach of Griggs and his players will remain the same.

“I’ve said to this group and this group knows that we never play rugby to lose. We’re not there just to compete. We want to make sure that we’re one of the forces.

“Again, we started off a little bit scrappy [against Italy] but we know we can be better. I expect us to come out next week and really put it up to France. They’re such a big, strong, physical side that we need to be on our game to compete with them.”