Monaghan fell short in fitness fight, says Danaher

IRELAND defence coach Declan Danaher says Sam Monaghan was ruled out of tomorrow’s Women’s Six Nations game against England because she hadn’t “fully recovered” from last weekend’s game against Wales.

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.

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 yesterday morning and she will also travel with the squad when they fly to London today 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,” Danaher explained.

England are expected to deliver another dominant display this weekend in a championship where they’ve kept Italy and Scotland scoreless in away wins.

“Obviously we’re playing England and we know the threats that come with playing against them,” Danaher added.

“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.”

With an attendance of over 45,000 expected at Twickenham, 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.” 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.