February 19th, 2007

England Women’s Head Coach Geoff Richards has made three changes to his team that will take on Ireland at Limerick’s Thomond Park in Sunday’s RBS 6 Nations clash, kick-off 2pm.

Wasps prop Vanessa Gray, who has 23 caps, returns to the starting line-up after coming off the bench in England’s victories over Scotland (60-0) and Italy (23-0). The 35-year-old Rugby World Cup finalist replaces Clifton’s Sophie Hemming, who starts the game on the bench.

Thirsk fly-half Katy McLean will make her first start for England after being named ahead of Saracens’ Karen Andrew. The 21-year-old has impressed the England coaches after coming off the bench in both England’s Six Nations matches against Scotland and Italy.

Wasps’ Amy Turner also returns to international action after an injury lay-off. The versatile scrum-half has not played for England since their 25-17 defeat to New Zealand in the 2006 IRB Rugby World Cup Final.

Richards said: “It’s great to see Amy back to full fitness. She played very well for Wasps against Blaydon at the weekend. She deserves this chance and it is an important one for her with former first choice scrum-half Jo Yapp currently taking some time out from the game.

“Katy McLean will partner Amy at fly-half. It’s been a close call between Karen Andrew and Katy since the beginning of the RBS 6 Nations, but up until now we have gone with Karen because of experience and she’s certainly shown that over the last couple of games. It is, however, important that players are rotated and that’s what we’re doing. Katy is a very talented player and we want to give her some more international match experience.

“The same goes for Vanessa Gray. Sophie Hemming has done a fantastic job and has really come on in leaps and bounds. Vanessa, however, will be a vital addition to our pack against Ireland in what is likely to be a game played in difficult conditions.”

Although England and Ireland are positioned at different ends of the RBS 6 Nations table with England leading the way, Richards is keen to stress that Ireland are not a team to take lightly. England’s hosts lost 10-13 to France in the dying minutes of the game nine days ago and were also unlucky to lose out 10-5 against Wales on the opening weekend of the European showpiece tournament.

“Ireland are a good side and especially at home,” added Richards. “They’re a young side with great team spirit and they should have beaten France which says a lot about their potential. They would have been very disappointed with that defeat but when you get a team who are this committed and have home advantage on their side that make a dangerous combination.

“For us, we are perhaps a little disappointed with our performance against Italy after starting really well against Scotland. I think, against Italy, it was a case of players trying a bit too hard and not thinking too much about our game plan. We lost our structure a bit but at the end of the day we have won both games and we haven’t conceded a single point and we want to keep that momentum going.”

England Team

1 Vanessa Gray  (Wasps)
2 Amy Garnett  (Saracens)
3 Katy Storie  (Blaydon)
4 Tamara Taylor (Thirsk)
5 Jo McGilchrist (Wasps)
6 Georgia Stevens (Clifton)
7 Maggie Alphonsi   (Saracens) VC
8 Catherine Spencer (Worcester)
9 Amy Turner (Wasps)
10 Katy McLean (Thirsk)
11 Danielle Waterman (Clifton)
12 Rachel Burford (Saracens)
13 Claire Allan  (Saracens)
14 Sue Day   (Wasps) (C)
15 Charlotte Barras (Saracens)
Replacements:   
16 Emma Layland (Richmond)
17 Sophie Hemming (Clifton)
18 Sarah Beale (Leos)
19 Sarah Hunter (Lichfield)
20 Karen Andrew (Saracens)
21 Michaela Staniford (Wasps)
22 Amber Penrith (Cardiff Quins)

RBS Women’s 6 Nations table

Country  P  W  D  L  For  Against  Points
England  2  2  0  0  83  0   4
France  2  2  0  0  50  27   4
Wales  2  2  0  0  20  5   4
Ireland  2  0  0  2  15  23   0
Italy   2  0  0  2  17  60   0
Scotland  2  0  0  3  0  70   0

England’s RBS 6 Nations fixtures & results:

England v Scotland, February 3rd, kick-off 230pm at Old Albanians RFC WON 60-0
England v Italy, February 10th, kick-off 415pm at Twickenham  WON 23-0
Ireland v England, February 25th, kick-off 2pm at Thomond Park, Limerick
England v France, March 11th, kick-off 145pm at Old Albanians RFC
Wales v England, March 17th, kick-off 230pm at Taffs Wells, near Cardiff RFC

Ends…