Three Chiefs Women selected for Ireland to take on France

Exeter Chiefs Women’s Edel ‘Tricky’ McMahon, Cliodhna Moloney and Dorothy Wall will all feature for Ireland in their opening Guinness Women’s Six Nations game against France.

Wall gets the nod to start on Saturday for the13:00 KO at the Kingspan Stadium while McMahon and Moloney will be hoping to make an impact off the bench.

It will be the first time the Ireland faithful will have seen McMahon back in green after the co-captain suffered a hamstring injury in the latter stages of last year’s WXV 1 tournament.

She made her return to fitness by playing for the Clovers in the Celtic Challenge before heading back to Sandy Park to make her presence felt in the PWR. There was a reoccurrence of her injury before the end of the season but is now fully fit and back on international duty.

McMahon said: “I have been really excited to be back in camp. Obviously, being injured during a campaign is hard to take but the Six Nations was a big motivation to get back to fitness. A few bumps on the road along the way have made being back involved even more rewarding.”

Moloney has also returned from injury after suffering a calf strain against Loughborough Lightning in January.

The Ireland v France game is first match of the 2025 Guinness Women’s Six Nations and will be followed up by Scotland v Wales at 16:45 and England v Italy on Sunday (KO 15:00). All games are being broadcast on either BBC Two or BBC iPlayer or both.

Chiefs Women’s assistant coach Steve Salvin said: “We are so pleased to see all three of our Ireland players involved on this opening Six Nations weekend. I know Tricky has been frustrated by injury, but she is a tough player and is very proud to play for her country. I have no doubt she will make an impact when she comes onto the field.”

Ireland Women's head coach Scott Bemand said: “We are really excited to get our 2025 season underway in front of our home crowd in Belfast this Saturday, and no better challenge to start with than the visit of a very talented France side. We have had a strong block of preparation leading into the Championship and the intensity of training and competition for places within the Match Day Squad has driven standards in camp.

“Building on from our WXV1 campaign last autumn, we’re now focused on producing a performance this Saturday and showcasing further growth and evolution in our game at the start of a very exciting year for Irish Rugby.”

Ireland Women

15 Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC)
14 Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC)
13 Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
12 Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC)
11 Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union RFC/Munster) (captain)
10 Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
9 Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC)
1 Niamh O’Dowd (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
2 Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury)(30)(vice-captain)
3 Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
4 Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster)
5 Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs/Munster)
6 Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster)
7 Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC)
8 Aoife Wafer (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 Cliodhna Moloney (Exeter Chiefs)
17 Siobhán McCarthy (Worcester Warriors/Munster)
18 Christy Haney (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
19 Grace Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby)
20 Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster)
21 Edel McMahon (Exeter Chiefs/Connacht)
22 Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht)
23 Enya Breen (Blackrock College RFC/Munster)