Ireland return to Virgin Media Park for the first time since last April’s win over Wales, hosting leaders England as they look to make the most out of their final home fixture of the 2025 Guinness Women’s Six Nations.
2025 GUINNESS WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 3:
Saturday, April 12 –
IRELAND (3rd) v ENGLAND (1st), Virgin Media Park, 4.45pm (live RTÉ 2/RTÉ Player/BBC Two/BBC iPlayer/RTÉ Radio 1/BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra/BBC Sounds)
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Team News: Head coach Scott Bemand has selected his Ireland matchday squad (sponsored by Aon) for the third round visit of England, the world’s number one ranked team, to Cork.
Following an impressive bonus point win away to Italy last time out, Ireland are back on Leeside with the Main Stand and Terrace in Virgin Media Park now sold out. Very limited tickets remain for the North and South Terraces – click here to buy.
Amee-Leigh Costigan will captain Ireland for the second time in this year’s Six Nations, as Edel McMahon is nursing an injury. There is another enforced change to the matchday 23 from the Italy as Enya Breen is also injured.
Costigan combines again in the back-three with Stacey Flood and Anna McGann, the scorer of a memorable hat-trick against the Azzurre, and Aoife Dalton and Eve Higgins form the midfield pairing.
Cork’s own Emily Lane gets the nod at scrum half, partnering Dannah O’Brien, and the front row trio of Niamh O’Dowd, Neve Jones, and Linda Djougang will pack down together for the sixth time in seven Tests so far this season.
Dorothy Wall slots back into the second row alongside Ulster’s Fiona Tuite, and the third and final change is in the back row where Brittany Hogan, a try scorer off the bench in the last round, takes over from McMahon. Erin King and Aoife Wafer complete the starting XV.
On the bench, Cliodhna Moloney, Siobhán McCarthy, Christy Haney, Ruth Campbell, and Grace Moore provide the forward reinforcements, with Aoibheann Reilly, Nicole Fowley, and Vicky Elmes Kinlan, who is line for her Six Nations debut, the back-line options.
Looking forward to facing this year’s Rugby World Cup hosts, Bemand said: “It’s not just around containing them (England), it’s about us firing shots on our terms as well, and we’re in a much better place now than we were.
“We want to be hard to beat, stopping them getting the possession they want on their terms is a big part of that. Defensively, we’re getting better all the time. Attack-wise, we’ll get moments and we need to execute against that.
“We’ve been focusing on bits so that we’re not under pressure, and bits where we need to get scoreboard pressure on them and then executing that.
“In terms of the athleticism of the game our group has been growing, has made great strides in terms of power, (the) fitness you need to compete with the tier 1 nations, so it’s a great opportunity for us to test ourselves.”
He added: “We know how many moments of pressure we got them under last year (in the 88-10 defeat at Twickenham Stadium). We are a different team to that.
“I am expecting us to create more pressure on them, give them more things to worry about and make some of that stick, and then if we are in a game, we know we have the ability to kick on and hang in there, a bit like the New Zealand fixture.
“So, it’s not about turning up for us this weekend. It’s about showing everybody that we are a tough team to beat, you’ve got to produce a performance to get anything out of us, and then we get those moments we will make them count.”
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Meanwhile, England head coach John Mitchell has also made three changes in personnel, one of them enforced with prop Mackenzie Carson ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations with an ankle injury.
Hannah Botterman and Maud Muir replace the injured Carson and the benched Sarah Bern respectively, while Alex Matthews, a World Rugby Player of the Year nominee in 2024, returns from suspension to take over from Maddie Feaunati at number 8.
The rest of the English team, led by flanker Zoe Aldcroft, is unchanged from the 67-12 victory over Wales. Abby Dow, who touched down twice in Cardiff, will win her 50th international cap on the right wing.
Seeking a seventh straight Six Nations title, England have won 52 out of their last 53 Test matches, and have won eight consecutive Championship encounters with Ireland since losing 11-8 at Ashbourne RFC during the 2015 tournament.
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Guinness Women’s Six Nations Results/Fixtures
Guinness Women’s Six Nations Table
IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC); Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC), Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union RFC/Munster) (capt); Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC); Niamh O’Dowd (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs/Munster), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC), Aoife Wafer (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster).
Replacements: Clíodhna Moloney (Exeter Chiefs), Siobhán McCarthy (Railway Union RFC/Munster), Christy Haney (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster), Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Grace Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby), Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht), Nicole Fowley (Galwegians RFC/Connacht), Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow RFC).
ENGLAND: Ellie Kildunne (Harlequins); Abby Dow (Trailfinders Women), Megan Jones (Leicester Tigers), Tatyana Heard (Gloucester-Hartpury), Jess Breach (Saracens); Zoe Harrison (Saracens), Natasha Hunt (Gloucester-Hartpury); Hannah Botterman (Bristol Bears), Lark Atkin-Davies (Bristol Bears), Maud Muir (Gloucester-Hartpury), Morwenna Talling (Sale Sharks), Abbie Ward (Bristol Bears), Zoe Aldcroft (Gloucester-Hartpury), Sadia Kabeya (Loughborough Lightning), Alex Matthews (Gloucester-Hartpury).
Replacements: Amy Cokayne (Leicester Tigers), Kelsey Clifford (Saracens), Sarah Bern (Bristol Bears), Rosie Galligan (Saracens), Maddie Feaunati (Exeter Chiefs), Lucy Packer (Harlequins), Holly Aitchison (Bristol Bears), Helena Rowland (Loughborough Lightning).
Referee: Aurélie Groizeleau (France)
Assistant Referees: Clara Munarini (Italy), Amber Stamp-Dunstan (Wales)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)
FPRO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)
Pre-Match Quotes: Dorothy Wall (Ireland) –
There’s a good feeling in camp. We’ve trained hard, we’ve trained well, and we’re a very connected unit who know what we’re trying to do.
“The focus has been very much on us – how we want to control the set-piece, where we want to play on the park, and different aspects of the game.
“We’ve reviewed what England do and we know they’ve got their strengths in certain areas. The work we’ve done this week will hopefully counteract those areas.”
Sadia Kabeya (England) –
We’re not letting the fact we’ve won our last two games affect our preparation ahead of Ireland – we take each game as a clean slate.
“However, we do want to keep building pressure on other teams, so we want a bigger result, a better performance. We played Ireland last year and had a huge result, beating them 88-10.
“But we know they had two good games in the WXV and a really successful tournament overall. It’s performance over points for us – if we can improve on how we played last year but not score as many points, we’d still be happy with that.”
Pre-Match Links –
Recent Meetings –
2022: TikTok Women’s Six Nations: England 69 Ireland 0, Mattioli Woods Welford Road, Leicester
2023: TikTok Women’s Six Nations: Ireland 0 England 48, Virgin Media Park
2024: Guinness Women’s Six Nations: England 88 Ireland 10, Twickenham Stadium
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