King Counting Down The Days To Ireland Captaincy Bow

The captaincy looks a very good fit for Erin King judging by how she navigated her first Guinness Women’s Six Nations launch as Ireland’s new leader. To say she is excited to captain the team for the first time against England is an understatement.

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The final countdown is on to Ireland’s Six Nations opener against England at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Saturday, April 11 (kick-off 2.45pm), with the tournament launch at the Guinness Old Brewer’s Yard in Covent Garden certainly whetting appetites for what is to come across April and May.

At the event in London, King joined Ireland head coach Scott Bemand, whose contract extension up to 2029 was announced last week, and mixed with her fellow national captains, of which she is the youngest at 22 and most inexperienced with just seven Test caps.

Of course that is offset by the fact that she has played over 100 World Sevens Series matches for Ireland, as well as gracing the 2024 Olympics stage in Paris, and Bemand had no hesistation in appointing her as captain given how he feels she has ‘hit the ground running’ on her return from injury, and how she ’embodies the Ireland Women’s rugby player’.

Looking forward to her first Six Nations in the captaincy role, King told Virgin Media Sport: “It’s super exciting. An absolute privilege and an absolute honour. Yeah, I don’t know if it has quite sunk in yet. I’ve known for a couple of weeks.

“When people were like, ‘Oh, what’s it like being captain and stuff?’, I was still like, ‘Oh my God, I couldn’t get over it’. But the last few weeks have been great, kind of settling into the role.

“I’ve had a lot of great leaders and a lot of good mentors reach out to me. Everyone is lending me a helping hand, so I’m surrounded by a really good group of people.”

Since Bemand took over as Ireland head coach in 2023, Sam Monaghan and Edel McMahon were co-captains of the team when both were fit and available, from the WXV3 title win in Dubai through to last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup which ended with a narrow quarter-final loss to France.

Enya Breen, Amee-Leigh Costigan, and Neve Jones have also had opportunities to show their leadership skills. Breen stepped up as captain against Canada and the USA during the successful WXV1 campaign in 2024, a few months before Costigan led Ireland against France and England during last year’s Six Nations.

Hooker Jones skippered the side against Canada in Belfast, during the build-up to the World Cup, and is the third most-capped player in the current squad with 41 Test appearances, behind fellow front rowers Linda Djougang (52) and Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald (49).

McMahon will miss the Six Nations after undergoing season-ending knee surgery, while Costigan recently revealed the joyous news that she is expecting twins with her husband Neil. King will have the ever-reliable Monaghan to lean on during the Championship, as well as others both in camp and outside of it.

“Sam is still in the leadership group, she’s heavily involved. I’ll go to her for a lot of advice and a lot of things. She will still be a big part of the leadership in our squad,” explained the 2024 World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year.

“‘Tricky’ (Edel McMahon), I’ve been reaching out to her. She was actually back in Dublin last week, so we met for a coffee. I was getting all the tips and tricks off her. They are leaders that I’ve looked up to and that brought me into this squad.

“When I came into the team, I was welcomed with such open arms and that’s kind of what I want to do for the girls coming in. I’m lucky that I have the likes of Amee-Leigh (Costigan), people like that, to help me as well.”

Getting to lead the team out at Twickenham will be a career highlight for King, especially as ticket sales have reached the 70,000 mark. It comes a year on from the devastating injury she suffered against the same opposition in Cork, which saw her lose almost all the cartilage behind her left kneecap.

Although there were some fears that she might not have been able to play rugby or even run again, the Sydney-born, Wicklow-raised back rower has made an inspirational comeback, starring with the Wolfhounds as the Celtic Challenge’s leading try scorer with seven tries ahead of Saturday’s final against the Clovers.

It may be a daunting prospect facing England on home soil, in their first outing since lifting the Rugby World Cup trophy at the same venue, but Bemand’s charges intend to meet the challenge head-on, feeding off what is sure to be a brilliant atmosphere on the Championship’s opening day.

“It’s very exciting (to play England first) and the girls in the squad feel the same. Like, why not have them first up as the first challenge?,” insisted King, who had got nine games under her belt since her return.

“We have a lot of belief in our squad at the moment and it’s a really exciting chance to play in an almost sold-out stadium. Yeah, I can’t wait, and I think everyone in camp feels the same.

“It’s going to be a bit of a challenge, they are the World champions. I think last year we held it pretty close to them, and hopefully we can put in a performance that we’re proud of. What an opportunity and how exciting.

“(With the size of the crowd) I think you can kind of go into your shell if you want to, but I think we’re going to feed off that energy and really come alive to it – just enjoy it and embrace it.”

The upcoming campaign will also take the girls in green to Connacht’s Dexcom Stadium for the first time since 2006, Clermont-Ferrand, and Belfast, before they host Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, May 17 (kick-off 2.30pm), in what will be first ever standalone Women’s Test at the home of Irish Rugby.

Delighted to see that ticket sales for the historic final round clash in Dublin are now over 15,000 and counting, King added: “We’ve been playing better and better, and we deserve to play in these stadiums.

“It’s super exciting and hopefully we’ll be able to sell more tickets for it and get a really good turnout. It’s going to be a great day out. I can promise you that we have something really special building in our squad, in our camp.

“It is a big talking point amongst the girls. A lot of the girls have dreamed growing up of playing at the Aviva Stadium. And now getting to pull on the green jersey and run out there, it’s such an exciting opportunity.”