Huge relief, big losses and bolters – Ireland name World Cup squad

With Ireland’s opening fixture in the Women’s Rugby World Cup now less than two weeks away, head coach Scott Bemand has named his 32-player panel for the tournament in England.

After not qualifying for the tournament held in New Zealand three years ago, there has been great excitement around what players and coaches have dubbed the “green wave” building towards their first pool fixture against Japan in Northampton on 24 August.

With Ireland’s squad listed in alphabetical order, fans will have needed to scroll to the very end to find the name they wanted to see.

Star back row Aoife Wafer, who was named Player of the Championship in this year’s Six Nations, had been a doubt with a knee injury but is included.

The loss of the number eight, who will join Harlequins after the tournament, would have been a devastating blow to Ireland’s chances in isolation, but all the more so given the wider injury picture.

Flanker and co-captain Edel McMahon is also included despite carrying a knock, but Ireland have far from a clean bill of health in the loose forward positions.

Flanker Erin King, who was named World Rugby Women’s XV’s Breakthrough Player of the Year in 2024, was ruled out of the tournament in April with a knee injury sustained during the Six Nations defeat by England.

Dorothy Wall, who is primarily a lock but has featured in the back row, is also missing because of an Achilles tendon injury suffered during the final round of the same championship.

While the losses of King and Wall have been known for months, their absences will be no less keenly felt and what would once have been considered a real area of depth for Ireland has been stretched considerably.

Much will depend on whether Wafer and McMahon can hit the ground running on their returns to action at the tournament.

“There’s always a balance around who you can take and what you can’t. We call them salvageable injuries,” said Bemand on Saturday after the Canada defeat.

“You certainly can’t carry too many [players with knocks]. We know we need a squad to get out of this competition what we want out of it.

By selecting only 37 players in a training panel in May, Scott Bemand’s squad felt relatively well flagged in recent months.

However, the 32 named on Monday contained some names that would have been wholly unexpected only a few weeks ago.

Claire Boles, a back row forward who was an Olympian in sevens last summer, is included despite not being named in the initial training squad, as is full-back Meabh Deely who was listed only as a “training panelist” in May.

Boles, with six caps, and Deely, who has played in 14 Tests, are however at least known quantities to the side.

Prop Ellena Perry and centre Nancy McGillivray did not feel on the radar when preparations for this tournament began, yet both will travel after only making their debuts this month.

Gloucester-Hartpury’s Perry, 28, is a former England international and appeared off the bench in the defeat against Canada.

She is eligible for Ireland through her maternal grandfather and, with her last England cap coming in November 2020, can represent a second nation under World Rugby regulations because she has completed a three-year stand-down period.

With fellow front row Christy Haney ruled out with a hamstring injury picked up this month, Perry could have an important role to play at the tournament.

While not capped at senior level, Exeter’s Nancy McGillivray is also in the squad despite having been in the English system.

After previously training with the Red Roses, McGillivray scored on her Ireland debut against Scotland in the first warm-up fixture.

Both have club colleagues in the Ireland set-up but does parachuting players in so close to the tournament risk squad harmony?

“If done incorrectly,” said Bemand last week. “Everything has been done well, in my opinion.

“So actually, transitioning in, in terms of the block that we’ve gone through, it’s been a pre-season block. People coming in and getting touch points within pre-season blocks is actually a really healthy point to enter and it gives people time to acclimatise.

There was another surprise on Monday in the shape of uncapped hooker Beth Buttimer who has been included after impressing for the Ireland Under-20s this summer.

Connacht flanker Ivana Kiripati is also named having won her first two caps in this month’s warm-up fixtures.

On the whole it is a squad tending towards less experienced players.

The average number of caps in the squad is fewer than 17 and there are only six players who have appeared in more than 30 Tests. Two of that sextet, hookers Cliodhna Moloney and Neve Jones, play in the same position.

After back-to-back third place finishes in the Six Nations, the first of which clinched their place at this World Cup, Bemand said his young squad are “getting used to performing with that pressure”.

However, with Ireland having missed out on the last World Cup – the tournament in New Zealand was played in 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic – hooker Cliodhna Moloney is the only member of the panel who was also in the squad for Ireland’s last appearance at the tournament in 2017.

“Missing out on the last World Cup lit a fire in all of us,” said co-captain Sam Monaghan.

“Getting Ireland back on the world stage means absolutely everything, it’s something we have dreamed of and fought for ever since.