Ireland: Meet the next generation hoping to make an impact

At the beginning of a new Women’s Rugby World Cup cycle everyone begins to keep an eye out for the next players that will stake a claim for regular Test match minutes.

No team is different in that. And after the immense disappointment of a quarter-final exit at the Women’s Rugby World Cup last September, plenty of Ireland hopefuls will want a place in Scott Bemand’s squad.

In November the Irish Rugby Football Union announced that 35 players had received central contracts for the 2025/26 season and offered an immediate insight into what the future of the side could look like.

But now two rounds into the new Celtic Challenge season plenty have started to put their ambitions to the test.

Case and point is Beth Buttimer. The promising 20-year-old hooker went to the Women’s Rugby World Cup as an uncapped player and acted third fiddle to Neve Jones and Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald.

There is little doubt that her selection for the tournament, at which she did not make an appearance, had a lot to do with her long-term development as a successor, most likely, to Moloney-MacDonald.

It is clear that Bemand and his coaching staff rate the Tipperary native’s talent. With room for growth too, the front-row is now taking part in her third Celtic Challenge campaign with Clovers.

Last season she scored four tries for Denis Fogarty’s side as they finished as runners-up to the Wolfhounds – the same opposition she made her first league appearance of the season against in Round 2 of the new Celtic Challenge season.

Buttimer may not be alone in joining Ireland’s front-row club when a new Ireland squad is named.

Last year the 21-year-old prop playes in Energia All-Ireland League, the Ulster Premiership, the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship, Celtic Challenge, for Ireland U20s and was selected in an Ireland senior squad for the first time. And that was the year after she was named Ireland’s MVP at the 2024 Women’s Summer Series.

To start her 2025/26 Celtic Challenge season with the Wolfhounds, Barrett dotted down twice as her side registered an opening round win over Edinburgh Rugby in Dublin.

Expect to see Barrett contending with Sadbh McGrath for a starting place very soon.

A little further back in the pack is where a real debate has emerged. Ireland are well stocked for second-row forwards as the likes of Sam Monaghan, Ruth Campbell, Dorothy Wall and Claire Boles all contend for selection.

In the back-row there are places to be taken and names to be established. A lack of consistency, all caused by injury, has meant that flankers and No.8s have been rotated heavily.

There has been recent positivity in the positions as Erin King has made her return from a nine-month lay-off, while Aoife Wafer has found match fitness with Harlequins in Premiership Women’s Rugby after making just one appearance for Ireland at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

With Edel McMahon out for the season it means there is at least one place up for grabs.
Ivana Kiripati us one of those players. With two Ireland caps the New Zealand raised No.8, who was awarded a full-time centralised contract for the 2025/26 season, is yet to make a Celtic Challenge appearance this term.

Based on their recent performances both Maeve Óg O’Leary and Jemima Adams Verling are hot on the heels of Kiripati.

Each have started for their teams in the opening two rounds of the season. 25-year-old O’Leary, who has five Ireland caps, has shown everything that you could possibly want from an openside flanker.

Chief among her achievements are four dominant tackles, 40 attacking ruck arrivals, six lineout takes and one lineout steal for Wolfhounds. That relentless work-rate, which has returned untarnished after a long-term injury, a return to Test rugby cannot be far away.

Like Kiripati, Adams Verling was another player that received a full-time contract. Connacht’s Women’s Club Player of the Year last term, the back-row has enjoyed two powerful outings at No.8 for Clovers.

Those performances have earned her two tries from 26 carries, a pair of linebreaks and two breakdown steals from her 160 minutes on the turf.

For some time Caitríona Finn has been well thought of. The Clovers playmaker is staggeringly just 19 but already has a back catalogue of strong performances for Munster and Ireland U20. Her talent also saw her travel with Ireland to WXV 1 in 2024 as an 18-year-old, although she did not win a cap.

With the recent retirement of Nicole Fowley, it does seem like there is a place for more competition at fly-half. Stacey Flood is more regularly seen at full-back than the middle of the park these days, and competition for 22-year-old Dannah O’Brien can be no bad thing either.

Two rounds into the new Celtic Challenge season and the out-half has 12 points in her back pocket and has the third best kicking accuracy in the competition (86 per cent).

She also has a tendency to play to the defensive line that is desirable. So far this has yielded three offloads to keep her team on the attack and, still with time to develop her game, you can be excited about what lies in Finn’s future.

The back three is not somewhere that Ireland is particularly light. They have the talents of Béibhinn Parsons, Amee-Leigh Costigan and Anna McGann to call upon. But too many options have never been a bad thing.

20-year-old Robyn O’Connor has taken part in senior Ireland sides but has seen the majority of her international rugby played in HSBC SVNS competition. Already in the Celtic Challenge the wing and full-back has made 194 metres with the ball for the Wolfhounds and made three linebreaks in her team’s unbeaten start to the season.

Such spark is a much sought after attribute and can land O’Connor, who did receive a central contract in the autumn, on the wing this Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

From the mercurial talent of O’Connor is the unerring reliability of Aoife Corey. A winner of an Ireland cap in the 2025 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, should the versatile Munster and Clovers back continue a solid start to the season she can work her way back into the international conversation.