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It was announced on Wednesday that Kris Lindsay had been appointed as Tanya Oxtoby’s successor as Northern Ireland boss on an interim basis.

Lindsay, who was previously a first-team coach when Gail Redmond was interim NI manager in 2023, will take charge for the World Cup 2027 qualifiers in March away to Switzerland and at home to Turkey.

The former Dungannon Swifts manager certainly has a lot to sort out between now and their first qualifier on Tuesday, 3 March, which is in only 34 days’ time.

Lindsay has an early big decision to make in naming an interim captain in the absence of regular skipper Simone Magill.

Magill, who succeeded Marissa Callaghan as her country’s captain in October 2024, will miss the entirety of this World Cup qualification campaign as she is expecting her first child.

There are a number of players who have worn the armband in recent years when Magill has been absent through injury.

The experienced Nadene Caldwell was captain in the two-legged Nations League play-off defeat by Iceland in October.

Laura Rafferty and Sarah McFadden, when they have been fit and included in the squad, were also named skipper on a few occasions under Oxtoby.

Jackie Burns and Rebecca McKenna, who are two of the first names on the team sheet alongside Lauren Wade, have all also captained the side on special occasions such as celebrating their respective 50th caps.

Although it is a young squad, there are evidently a number of experienced and consistent performers who could lead the team out against Switzerland.

Northern Ireland not only lose Magill’s leadership abilities for this campaign, but also her knack for being in the right place at the right time to score goals.

The 31-year-old has won 95 caps and has scored 25 goals, putting her second in the NI women’s goalscoring charts behind Rachel Furness.

A direct replacement will be hard to come by but there are some young options for Lindsay to choose from.

For the home leg of the Nations League play-off against Iceland, Oxtoby went for Glentoran duo Kascie Weir and Emily Wilson up front.

Weir at 19 is an exciting prospect who netted the winner against Romania, while Wilson can also operate out wide but has been a constant goal threat for the Glens in recent seasons when playing through the middle.

Kerry Beattie, who has found form at Aberdeen, was on the bench for both legs in October and is playing regularly in Scotland.

He may only be in charge for two games but Lindsay will want to have the right staff around him to ensure his side can hit the ground running.

Oxtoby had a sizeable backroom staff and a number of assistant coaches during her tenure.

The first was Stuart McLaren, who left his role in April 2025 with former Wales international Loren Dykes then being involved in a number of camps alongside her role as first-team coach at Bristol City.

Oxtoby added Laura Heffernan, manager of DLR Waves in the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division, to her backroom team for the play-off against Iceland and it will be interesting to see if her and Dykes’ services are retained by Lindsay.

For Lindsay’s brief spell as Dungannon Swifts boss, he had Chris Wright as his assistant but he is currently working as head of NIFL phase at Portadown.

A challenge that all Northern Ireland women’s managers face at this time of year is getting domestic-based players, who are presently only undertaking pre-season, ready for international games.

While those that play in England and Scotland are in the thick of their seasons and playing regularly, those that ply their trade in the Women’s Premiership have been without competitive action since October.

There were nine domestic-based players in the last squad who will have had to be doing their own training on top of pre-season with their clubs to be considered fit and sharp enough for for selection.

Lindsay faces a baptism of fire with a first game away to the group’s top seeds Switzerland and then a home game against in-form Turkey four days later.

Against the Swiss, who featured in last summer’s Euros, in particular, NI will want to try and stay in the game as long as possible.

Starting to keep clean sheets again will be a key aim in these two games and the campaign as a whole.

NI only managed one clean sheet in their eight fixtures in 2025, in a 1-0 win over Romania at Windsor Park in April.

They conceded 15 goals across those games, including two or more in five fixtures.

Five-time Six Nations winner Conor Murray admits he is “worried” about some of Ireland’s issues heading into next week’s mouthwatering tournament opener against France in Paris.

Ireland, who relinquished their title to Les Bleus in 2025, will travel to Stade de France without several key players through injury and the suspended Bundee Aki.

France, who hammered the Irish 42-27 in Dublin last year, are also without a host of established internationals, but Murray feels Fabien Galthie’s side will have the edge in the French capital next week.

“I think France will be a little bit too tough for the first game,” Murray, who won 125 Ireland caps, said on the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

“I hate saying that because I’m recently out of the dressing room, but I do think it’ll be a little bit too far to go.

“I do, however, think they’ll put in a performance and we’ll see some sort of shape to what Ireland are trying to do and hopefully a few of the new guys come in and hold their head high after a game like that.”

Murray added: “I’m worried now with the front-row issues and the loose-head situation and the way it ties into the story of the South Africa game [in which the Irish scrum was decimated during November’s Test in Dublin].

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell must pick from a depleted squad after a spate of injuries which has robbed him of seasoned Test players like Andrew Porter, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen and Robbie Henshaw.

But Farrell’s Ireland defied the odds when they secured an impressive opening win over France in Marseille in the 2024 Six Nations with a performance that emphatically eased fears of a post-World Cup hangover.

“The Farrell factor is the bit that balances it up,” said Andrew Trimble, who won 70 Ireland caps between 2005 and 2017.

“On paper, it feels like the scrum is more important than ever. [There are] one or two other injuries, a handful of lads you’d want to be in better form, and then no stability or consistency at 10.

“There’s so many guys all playing OK at best. If there were so many young lads banging on the door, then you’d go ‘OK, a spark of youth and enthusiasm to ignite this team’ but there’s only a couple of those guys.

“All of that on paper says we can’t go to Paris and be excited, but Farrell always finds a way to get something out of these guys. He’s done it less recently but he has enough credit in the bank.”

Murray, who played in the 38-17 win in Marseille two years ago, echoed Trimble’s comments and insisted Farrell will use his motivational skills to ensure Ireland improve on the standards that saw them fall to New Zealand and South Africa in November.

“Talking about the Marseille game in ’24, we were questioned about form and not clicking.

“The last game we had played was the quarter-final against New Zealand and we had the most detailed review of a game I had in my career.

“We looked at that game and Andy pointed out in black and white so many situations where we could have been better, that last 20 minutes against New Zealand when we struggled and tried to find a try.

For Ireland centurion Rory Best, fly-half and the back three are Farrell’s most pressing selection headaches.

Back-three players Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Shayne Bolton and Jordan Larmour are all missing, while Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley and Harry Byrne are all vying for the out-half spot.

Leinster are once again most heavily represented in Farrell’s squad and Best feels finding cohesion quickly will be crucial given the differences in how the province and the national team have been playing lately.

“Leinster in the last number of years up until this year have played very similarly to how Ireland have played, hence why [former Leinster assistant] Andrew Goodman came in to be the Ireland attack coach because they were so similar,” said Best, who captained Ireland to the 2018 Grand Slam.

“You’re lifting these players from one team into the other with the same system. Leinster this season more than last are playing differently, they’re kicking the ball a lot more. Even against Ulster at the Aviva, you never would have seen Leinster get into the opposition 22 and put the ball up. Andy is definitely not going to do that.

“They will kick the ball a lot because away from home you need to. When you get in the pressure of the Stade de France, you will go into the automatic response which is what you’ve been trained every day at your club.

Five-time Six Nations winner Conor Murray admits he is “worried” about some of Ireland’s issues heading into next week’s mouthwatering tournament opener against France in Paris.

Ireland, who relinquished their title to Les Bleus in 2025, will travel to Stade de France without several key players through injury and the suspended Bundee Aki.

France, who hammered the Irish 42-27 in Dublin last year, are also without a host of established internationals, but Murray feels Fabien Galthie’s side will have the edge in the French capital next week.

“I think France will be a little bit too tough for the first game,” Murray, who won 125 Ireland caps, said on the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

“I hate saying that because I’m recently out of the dressing room, but I do think it’ll be a little bit too far to go.

“I do, however, think they’ll put in a performance and we’ll see some sort of shape to what Ireland are trying to do and hopefully a few of the new guys come in and hold their head high after a game like that.”

Murray added: “I’m worried now with the front-row issues and the loose-head situation and the way it ties into the story of the South Africa game [in which the Irish scrum was decimated during November’s Test in Dublin].

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell must pick from a depleted squad after a spate of injuries which has robbed him of seasoned Test players like Andrew Porter, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen and Robbie Henshaw.

But Farrell’s Ireland defied the odds when they secured an impressive opening win over France in Marseille in the 2024 Six Nations with a performance that emphatically eased fears of a post-World Cup hangover.

“The Farrell factor is the bit that balances it up,” said Andrew Trimble, who won 70 Ireland caps between 2005 and 2017.

“On paper, it feels like the scrum is more important than ever. [There are] one or two other injuries, a handful of lads you’d want to be in better form, and then no stability or consistency at 10.

“There’s so many guys all playing OK at best. If there were so many young lads banging on the door, then you’d go ‘OK, a spark of youth and enthusiasm to ignite this team’ but there’s only a couple of those guys.

“All of that on paper says we can’t go to Paris and be excited, but Farrell always finds a way to get something out of these guys. He’s done it less recently but he has enough credit in the bank.”

Murray, who played in the 38-17 win in Marseille two years ago, echoed Trimble’s comments and insisted Farrell will use his motivational skills to ensure Ireland improve on the standards that saw them fall to New Zealand and South Africa in November.

“Talking about the Marseille game in ’24, we were questioned about form and not clicking.

“The last game we had played was the quarter-final against New Zealand and we had the most detailed review of a game I had in my career.

“We looked at that game and Andy pointed out in black and white so many situations where we could have been better, that last 20 minutes against New Zealand when we struggled and tried to find a try.

For Ireland centurion Rory Best, fly-half and the back three are Farrell’s most pressing selection headaches.

Back-three players Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Shayne Bolton and Jordan Larmour are all missing, while Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley and Harry Byrne are all vying for the out-half spot.

Leinster are once again most heavily represented in Farrell’s squad and Best feels finding cohesion quickly will be crucial given the differences in how the province and the national team have been playing lately.

“Leinster in the last number of years up until this year have played very similarly to how Ireland have played, hence why [former Leinster assistant] Andrew Goodman came in to be the Ireland attack coach because they were so similar,” said Best, who captained Ireland to the 2018 Grand Slam.

“You’re lifting these players from one team into the other with the same system. Leinster this season more than last are playing differently, they’re kicking the ball a lot more. Even against Ulster at the Aviva, you never would have seen Leinster get into the opposition 22 and put the ball up. Andy is definitely not going to do that.

“They will kick the ball a lot because away from home you need to. When you get in the pressure of the Stade de France, you will go into the automatic response which is what you’ve been trained every day at your club.

Arsenal have held advanced discussions with Barcelona full-back Ona Batlle in the hope of reaching a pre-contract agreement to sign her in the summer.

The 26-year-old is free to hold talks with other clubs with her current contract at Barcelona due to expire at the end of the season.

European champions Arsenal already have plans in place for the summer window and are hopeful of bringing in Batlle on a free transfer.

The Gunners are also close to agreeing terms with England midfielder Georgia Stanway to join when she leaves Bayern Munich at the end of the season.

Should they strike a deal with Spain international Batlle, it would be one of the biggest moves in recent years.

The full-back, who spent three seasons at Manchester United between 2020 and 2023, was part of the Spain squad that won the World Cup three years ago.

She also played a key role as Spain reached the Euro 2025 final and Barcelona claimed the Women’s Champions League crown in 2024.