Yet this won’t be the case at the home of Ulster Rugby this weekend as Monaghan is still working her way back from a serious knee injury and McMahon has to be content with a place amongst the replacements as part of a 6/2 bench split. Although Bemand revealed the latter will assume captaincy duties upon her expected introduction tomorrow, Costigan (nee Murphy Crowe) is set the lead out the side from the left-wing.

“Amee-Leigh, ever since coming back in from the Sevens programme, has been an absolute role model leader in this environment,” Bemand remarked in a video call to the Irish media yesterday.

“She’s scored a lot of tries on the Sevens circuit, has got a massive name for herself, but what I’ve seen is somebody that is absolutely hungry to be better as a player in every facet of the game. She’s been a great role model leader, we believe she’s the voice of the group.

“There’s a few discussions about being a winger and a captain and I’m delighted to see France have followed suit and named [Marine] Menager as one of their captains. We’ve got a strong leadership group. Neve Jones will have a role to play in terms of speaking to the referee and when Tricky [McMahon] comes on, she’ll take the captaincy and be the voice to the referee.”

Although there aren’t any debutants in the match day 23 for tomorrow’s game, Railway Union’s Anna McGann will make her first appearance for Ireland under Bemand alongside Costigan and Stacey Flood in the back-three.

She previously picked up six caps during the tenure of Bemand’s predecessor Greg McWilliams, but an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained playing for the Ireland Sevens in June 2023 kept her sidelined for an extended period.

She was close to making the cut for Ireland’s productive WXV 1 campaign in Canada in September and October of last year, before ultimately being left out as a precaution. Yet after displaying impressive form for the Clovers in this season’s Celtic Challenge, McGann has forced her way into the starting line-up for tomorrow’s Championship opener.

“Anna actually was in the mix to come to Canada in WXV 1. Unfortunately she picked up a little bit of a niggle and the risk versus reward of being able to take her [was too big]. We were disappointed not being able to take her on that tour. We’ve had an eye on her for a while.

“She has come in, she has got herself back fit and she’s an unbelievably talented runner. She’s nearly six foot tall, she’s rangy. She’s got a great pass. She’s got a very good swerve when she runs. We believe she is going to cause the French some problems. We’ve just got to try and make sure we get her on the ball in the right space and in the right manner.”

In advance of last year’s 2024 Six Nations (his first Championship as head coach of the side), Bemand was targeting a top-three finish and this was achieved despite them recording just two wins from five games played.

This helped to secure qualification for the aforementioned WXV 1 tournament in Canada and the upcoming Rugby World Cup in England. This undoubtedly represented a step in the right direction and finishing second in the top-tier of the WXV has certainly raised expectations coming into 2025.

However, England (Women’s Six Nations winners for the past six seasons) and France remain the dominant forces in the tournament, and Bemand said that closing the gap to these teams is something that Ireland will be actively targeting in the coming weeks.

“We’re targeting trying to close that gap on the top two, we want to become World Cup contenders. At some point, we’ve got to take some chunks out of a Tier 1 nation and for us that’s doing something against a France or an England,” Bemand added.