The Women’s RBS Six Nations also kicks off next weekend with Ireland facing Italy in Rovigo. KO 14:30 Italian time, 13:30 UK/IRE
The Women’s Six Nations has mirrored the men’s since 2006, when Italy replaced Spain, and this years competition looks particularly interesting with the teams re-building following last summers Women’s World Cup.
Two Ulster players, Lauren Day and Stacey Lea Kennedy, have made the final cut for the 25 player Six Nations Squad along with Donegal’s Larissa Muldoon who’s been catapulted into the international set up before appearing for her province.
The FRU caught up with Lauren Day for a chat on the Ireland set up ahead of the Six Nations. Lauren helped out with our Women’s World Cup coverage last summer despite losing out due to injury and is looking forward to getting back on the pitch for Ireland.
How does it feel to be back in the Ireland Squad?
Obviously, after such a low last season, I was delighted to be involved again, to get back to where I was, and to improve. I feel lucky to be part of the squad, it’s a huge honour to represent your country and I’m thankful to be involved.
Training has been going very well, there are a lot of new faces, which is refreshing and it adds another dimension to the squad. I can’t wait until we play our fist game now and put all our training into practice.
How are the uncapped players fitting in?
Everyone has been fitting in really well. It’s great to see Stacey Lea and Larissa involved in the squad and we’ve had lots of time to get to know each other off the pitch as well as on the pitch. It’s been great to get to know the new personalities.
Are there any characters that are standing out at the minute?
Well kinda related to this, we had a juggling competition at one of our squad weekends and Joy Neville, who is the most competitive person in the whole, entire, world thought she had it in the bag, but on the day the pressure completely got to her and she was shown up by Ailis which was an absolute pleasure to watch!
Of the uncapped players, who are the ones to watch?
As a forward I’m obviously biased, but I’d say Ailis (Egan), Stacey Lea, Heather (O’Brien), Siobhan (Flemming) and Dee (O’Brien) have all settled into the pack really well and they are a pleasure to play with.
What’s the feeling in the squad about the Six Nations then?
Everybody’s put a lot of hard work into training over the last few weekends. A lot has been done, but there is still a lot to work on. Most of the teams are rebuilding this year after the World Cup and I believe this years competition is going to be a very exciting one.
We have to focus one game a a time, give each game 100% and hopefully well get the results. That sounds a bit cheesy (laughs)!
A lot will depend on how you do against the French in your second game but Ireland have a chance to be pushing for second place in this years competition. Is that how you feel?
It’s hard to say, France are so strong. Scotland, Wales and Ireland are all in the same position where we have have all lost a lot of players. Italy, I’m not so sure about, but I think they are in the same position and they are rebuilding, England haven’t lost so many. France have lost players but they have good depth. It’ll just depend on what sort of team turns up on the day!
Anything in particular we have to look out for against the Italians?
Italy is the only nation I’ve yet to play but they have a really heavy pack and exceptionally quick wingers. We’ll be focusing more on the Italian team this weekend at training but we are confident in our own game and we hope to do well. I’m really looking forward to it if I make the match day 22 . It’s exciting to be back.
