Bemand: It’s Hugely Positive For Players To Connect With Game’s Legends

Members of Ireland’s trailblazing first ever Women’s international team, who debuted together against Scotland on St. Valentine’s Day in 1993, are sure to get a very warm welcome when they come into camp to present Erin King and her team-mates with their match jerseys.

Jill Henderson was Ireland’s captain for that inaugural fixture in Edinburgh, with the Alain Rolland-coached team including the late Clare Hoppe, whose niece Helen Nelson will captain Scotland tomorrow, and Anne Parsons and Therese Kennedy, who went on to play 53 times between them.

The Aviva Stadium will be awash with the ever-growing Green Wave this weekend, as over 30,000 tickets have been sold for the first standalone Women’s Test to take place at the home of Irish Rugby. Fittingly, the heroes and history-makers that came before the current crop will also be feted afterwards.

A special post-match function, hosted by the IRFU at the stadium, will see all current and former Ireland Women’s international players, both in 15s and Sevens, honoured with a unique heritage cap to connect the generations and provide much-deserved recognition of their contribution to what the green jersey has become today.

Speaking about how meaningful it is to have the pioneering 1993 team involved, Ireland head coach Scott Bemand said: “‘The legends are coming in, and there’s going to be a piece around celebrating what they achieved back in the day, connecting with what they went through.

“It was a different world back then, compared to what the players have now in terms of support, what the programme can offer, what the world looks like now. We’re playing in front of over 30,000 people at the home of Irish Rugby.

“And in terms of where they used to play, there’s a really big part around connecting it all up and increasing the Green Wave, if you like.

“I know the current players have always been keen to reach out to the legends that have gone before them. So I think it’s a hugely, hugely positive piece.”

There is just one change to the Ireland team that beat Wales 33-12 with a five-try performance in Belfast last week. Former co-captain Sam Monaghan comes into the second row for her first start of the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, with Dorothy Wall swapping back to the bench role.

As they chase their third home win of the campaign, the hosts have reverted to a five-three bench split. Wicklow’s Vicky Elmes Kinlan comes in as the additional back, and 20-year-old starlet Niamh Gallagher is retained following her debut as a replacement against the Welsh.

With excitement building ahead of the team’s eagerly-awaited Aviva Stadium bow, Bemand acknowledged that the coaches took a long time to finalise the matchday 23 given how fierce the competition for places is internally, and what impact players can make at different stages of the contest.

“It’s been an absolute pleasure to have an hour-and-a-half conversation discussing who is in your engine room in selection, so we enjoy selection.

“We’ve moved to a point now where we have got genuine competition for who can start, who can come on and bring impact off the bench.

“We’re at the level now that we’re starting to consider who we’re playing against and what best fit for how we think the game is going to pattern out.

“So yeah, we’re well stocked in that area, and we’re pretty well stocked (on the bench). We’ve gone back to a five-three (split) this week and that’s because of how we think the game will go.

“We’re desperate to see Vicky Elmes Kinlan come on and bring her power game to the party. We’re well stocked in that.”

Ireland were in the same third position, sitting on 10 points, heading into this stage of last year’s Six Nations. They were still able to finish as the best of the rest behind champions England and France, but Scotland sucker-punched them with a last-gasp 26-19 defeat at Hive Stadium on the final day.

Just over twelve months on, and with a Rugby World Cup under their belt and an almost a fully-fit wider squad to work with, the girls in green are heavy favourites to exact revenge on home soil. Notably, King, Monaghan, Aoife Wafer, and Béibhinn Parsons all missed that 2025 game.

The influential quartet are all part of the starting XV for tomorrow’s rematch, which Bemand hopes will see his charges produce their most complete performance of the tournament after impressive first halves against both Italy and France, and a strong finish to their opener against England.

Asked to assess how they have done so far, he replied: “If we look at performances rather than the results – results often put a different twist on things – I think we’re probably sitting in as expected.

“We’ve been well behaved, we’re doing alright, but we’ve gone after different bits in the competition. We didn’t get the fast start against England. We got the fast start against Italy. We got the fast start but didn’t get the ball down against France.

“So it’s trending up, because we’re creating more problems for the World Cup contenders, but ultimately over the next year, the next two years, we want to be seeing those results home. We’re tracking up, we’re improving, but we’re not there yet.”

Winning in front of their largest ever home attendance would certainly keep them on an upward trajectory, as he added: “We’ve got a group that I really believe will feed off the confidence that a home, 30,000 crowd will give them. We want to show our best to people to keep people coming on board.

“We also understand what our role in this is, and our role is to get a great performance that people want to get on the back of to produce a great result. We want to get people on their feet, we want to get people shouting and cheering.

“The more we can do that, it will bode even better for the future in terms of selling grounds, selling tickets, merchandise, more people playing rugby, and to keep the Green Wave going. So, we’re pretty clear on what our role in this is.

“We will enjoy the occasion, undoubtedly. If we get the sweet spot of emotion, clarity, and execution under whatever pressure exists, that will be the tonic for it, and that’ll get the crowd on their feet and noisy at home.”