‘What a brilliant opportunity to play in front of 45,000 people’ – Ireland relishing Twickenham outing

The absence of the co-captain is a huge loss to Ireland, with Hannah O’Connor replacing her in the second row. It’s one of two changes to the team that started the win over Wales with Aoife Dalton replacing Enya Breen in the centre.

Monaghan missed the opening game against France last month due to a concussion she suffered while playing for her club, Gloucester Hartpury, in January but she returned for round two against Italy and played a huge role in the win at Musgrave Park last Saturday.

Even though she missed a game, Monaghan still tops the overall player rankings for most carries (44) and she’s second for most line-outs won (13).

Danaher said Monaghan still took part in training this morning and she will also travel with the squad when they fly to London this afternoon for the Twickenham game.

“She’s just not fully recovered from the game. She put in a massive effort and she’s just not hit her markers to be ready. It obviously gives Hannah [O’Connor] an opportunity to step in which is brilliant because it shows the depth of our squad,” Danaher explained today.

“She’s just taking longer to recover from the effort she put in. It’s risk and reward, isn’t it? Probably due to the period of time she’d been out coming into this Six Nations, little things like that, the physical effort and the mental effort that it takes to run a line-out. She’s co-captain with Tricky [Edel McMahon]. She’s just come back and the medical team have done an amazing job here but she’s just not hitting her markers to give us the opportunity to play her, if that makes sense.”

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 18th April

England are expected to deliver another dominant display this weekend in a championship where they’ve kept Italy (0-48) and Scotland (0-46) scoreless in away wins. Ireland have failed to register a point against England in their last three Women’s Six Nations games. While Danaher admits it’s going to be “pretty relentless both sides of the ball” against the Red Roses, he wants the team to continue to improve off the back of their 36-5 win over Wales.

“Obviously we’re playing England and we know the threats that come with playing against them. When the game is finished, we want to be able to go, ‘look, have we put in another performance that we’re proud of? Have we grown again as a group?’ And sometimes that comes with the positives but sometimes that also comes with learnings.”

It will be Aoife Wafer’s first game against England in the Six Nations. After her player of the match performance last weekend, the Wexford backrower was once again voted player of the round for the second time in a row.

“I enjoy working with Wafs. Best way to describe her is she’s hungry to get better and she’s desperate to improve. For the second game, we sat and watched the whole game together. She said to me after the France game, I’ll catch you on the Monday and she waited around until 4pm or 5pm after the day had finished and we sat there for 90 minutes and watched the game. She’s incredibly hungry, she’s incredibly humble. I love her work ethic.”

With an attendance of over 45,000 expected at Twickenham on Saturday, the Ireland squad have once again been training with increased volume in noise levels at training.

“We’ve been tipping away with that gently in the background from when we played France so we’re very aware of trying to prepare the girls without spooking them. But for a lot of them what a brilliant opportunity to go to Twickenham and play in front of 50,000 people, I think it’s 45,000.

“I know the girls are well prepared for that atmosphere.”

Ireland team (v England): L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, A Dalton, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, H O’Connor; A Wafer, E McMahon (capt), B Hogan.

Reps: C Moloney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, S Ikahihifo, M Scuffil-McCabe, E Breen, M Deely.