{"id":13233,"date":"2026-04-17T20:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13233"},"modified":"2026-04-17T20:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:06:47","slug":"womens-six-nations-2026-robyn-oconnor-handed-debut-as-ireland-make-three-changes-to-face-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13233","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Six Nations 2026: Robyn O’Connor handed debut as Ireland make three changes to face Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Robyn O’Connor will make her Ireland debut as head coach Scott Bemand makes three changes for Saturday’s Women’s Six Nations match against Italy in Galway. <\/b><\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Leinster player, who previously represented Ireland in the sevens code, replaces Vicky Elmes Kinlan on the left wing.<\/p>\n

Centre Nancy McGillivray and second row Ruth Campbell also come into the side with Eve Higgins and Dorothy Wall dropping to the bench for the game at Dexcom Stadium (17:40 BST), which hosts a Six Nations fixture for the first time. <\/p>\n

“She’s a really tough player,” Bemand said of O’Connor, who scored five tries to help the Wolfhounds retain the Celtic Challenge earlier this year. <\/p>\n

“She’s got physicality, change of direction, she’s a great stepper and that’s perhaps not as prevalent in the women’s game and that creates attacking moments and opportunities for us. <\/p>\n

“She knows her way to the try line and she’s an excellent fielder of a rugby ball. She has played quite a bit at full-back in her formative years so anything going up in the air we know she’s confident.”<\/p>\n

Former co-captain Sam Monaghan is named on the bench after recovering from injury, while prop Sadhbh McGrath also comes into the matchday squad.<\/p>\n

Ireland opened the Six Nations with a 33-12 loss to England at Allianz Stadium, while Italy were beaten 40-7 by France in Grenoble. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Robyn O’Connor will make her Ireland debut as head coach Scott Bemand makes three changes for Saturday’s Women’s Six Nations match against Italy in Galway. The 20-year-old Leinster player, who previously represented Ireland in the sevens code, replaces Vicky Elmes Kinlan on the left wing. Centre Nancy McGillivray and second row Ruth Campbell also come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}