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IRELAND HEAD COACH Scott Bemand has made seven changes to his starting XV for Sunday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup pool meeting with Spain in Northampton [KO 12pm, RTÉ2/BBC2].
Ireland will hope to book their place in the quarter-finals this weekend, having opened their World Cup campaign with a 42-14 defeat of Japan last Sunday. Ireland’s final pool game is against New Zealand in Brighton on 7 September.
And the Ireland head coach has made a raft for changes for the Franklin’s Gardens clash against a side ranked 13th in the world, switching two of his backs and five of his starting forwards.
As expected, there is no place for Aoife Wafer, who continues to rehab a knee injury.
Sam Monaghan captains the team as co-captain Edel McMahon rotates out of the side.
In the front row, Linda Djougang is set to become just the 15th women’s player to reach 50 Test caps for Ireland.
There’s one change in the back three, with Anna McGann coming onto the wing for Béibhinn Parsons, as Stacey Flood and Amee-Leigh Costigan both start for the second week running.
Bemand has kept his centres unchanged, as Eve Higgins and Aoife Dalton get the nod to go again.
Dannah O’Brien continues at out-half, but a change at scrum-half sees Molly Scuffil-McCabe handed the nine jersey.
Djougang continues in the front row, while Clíodhna Moloney MacDonald comes in at hooker and Ellena Perry wins her first start for Ireland. Perry was previously capped 11 times for England before switching allegiance to Ireland this summer.
Monaghan captains the team from the second row and is joined by Eimear Corri-Fallon in the engine room.
Fiona Tuite continues at blindside flanker, having marked her first Test start at six with a try against Japan, as Claire Boles and Grace Moore are promoted to the starting back row.
On the bench, Neve Jones, Siobhán McCarthy, Sadhbh McGrath, Ruth Campbell and Brittany Hogan are the forward replacements, with Emily Lane, Enya Breen and Nancy McGillivray the three substitute backs.
IRELAND
Replacements:
Referee: Kat Roche
Written by Ciarán Kennedy and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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