AFTER MISSING OUT on the second round clash with Italy, Ireland women’s co-captain Edel McMahon is hoping for a swift return to international duty against Wales in the Six Nations Championship at Virgin Media Park this Saturday.

Having led the team out in the absence of fellow joint skipper Sam Monaghan for an away trip to France on the opening weekend of the tournament, the Clare native found herself outside of the matchday 23 when the Italians paid a visit to the RDS on Easter Sunday. Selected at blindside flanker in the French game, Aoife Wafer took over from McMahon at openside for their first home fixture of 2024 and proceeded to deliver a performance that garnered her the Six Nations Player of the Round.

Yet Ireland head coach Scott Bemand insisted at the time that McMahon’s exclusion for the Italy game didn’t rule her out for future selection and he reserved praise for the way the experienced back-row knuckled down in training to give herself the best possible chance of featuring in Cork this coming weekend. While admitting it was disappointing to not be involved against Italy, McMahon nevertheless understands this is sometimes the nature of Test rugby.

“Selection’s really tough, it’s obviously disappointing. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to compete, be part of a successful Ireland and I think that’s a sign of the team. That we’re competing week-in, week-out, and that’s only going to drive our performances as we build for the rest of the Six Nations,” McMahon remarked at a press conference in the IRFU’s High Performance Centre on Tuesday.

“Selection is what it is. Obviously we had our chat and I went away and went after training for the last couple of opportunities that I could to put my hand up for selection again. That’s the way it goes.

“We had a good conversation about what that was and I was confident that the girls then were going to do a good job for us. It’s just how you carry yourself because week in, week out, we have to compete. We have to keep driving the standards. That’s where I went to.”

We will find out later on today if McMahon (known affectionately to her team-mates as ‘Tricky’) is in line to pick up her 26th international cap as Bemand is set to unveil his selection for Saturday’s game at 12pm.

If she does feature on the Leeside, McMahon will be coming up against some very familiar faces. Of the 23 players that saw game time for Wales in a 46-10 defeat to England in Bristol last Saturday week, 19 of them are currently plying their trades at Premiership Women’s Rugby outfits.

McMahon plays in this English-based competition for Exeter Chiefs and in her first appearance of the 2023/24 season against Gloucester-Hartpury on 16 December of last year at Sandy Park, McMahon was pitched into battle with five of that particular Welsh cohort. Also included in the Gloucester squad for that game was the aforementioned Monaghan and current first-choice Ireland hooker Neve Jones.

Lauren Delany, Grace Moore, the uncapped duo of Shannon Ikahihifo and Andrea Stock, as well as the newly-recalled Cliodhna Moloney, are the other members of the Ireland set-up that play their club rugby over in England, and McMahon believes it is beneficial to be coming up against the bulk of the Welsh side on such a regular basis.

“I think it’s a familiarity piece. You can say that for a good few of the nations, but you play them week in and week out, so you feel more familiar with how they play.

“You can pick out players, you can identify individual brilliance maybe or where they’re weak at. Or what you can go and target. I think that familiarity that we can bring into the squad will be only a benefit.”

Like their opponents on Saturday, Ireland are still searching for their first win of this year’s Six Nations. Back-to-back defeats to France and Italy have come on the heels of a winless run through the 2023 edition of the Championship, but McMahon feels this Irish team are capable of building on the encouraging signs from those games.

“We are creating opportunities in attack. I think that is something we probably struggled a little with in the last Six Nations. With having opportunities, where we’re actually getting the ball to space,” McMahon added.

“Our wingers are getting hands on ball and we’re in the ‘22’. We’re playing the right territory. I think our game management in that area has been working really well for us. That’s something we’re going to go after again for Wales and being more clinical in those executions.”

Daire Walsh