{"id":120513,"date":"2025-09-05T10:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/120513\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:29:10","slug":"sam-monaghan-starts-as-ireland-name-side-for-crucial-black-ferns-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/120513\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Monaghan starts as Ireland name side for crucial Black Ferns clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ireland<\/a> co-captain Sam Monaghan<\/a> has overcome an injury concern to face New Zealand<\/a> in a massive 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> clash on Sunday, with the winner set to top Pool C and carry some momentum into the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Monaghan left last weekend\u2019s match against Spain<\/a> in the 24th minute, which had the co-skipper under some sense of doubt for the important battle with the Black Ferns, although assistant coach Denis Fogarty cleared things up on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Fogarty revealed that Monaghan remained \u201cin contention\u201d for the final round of pool play, saying Monaghan had \u201cstepped aside out of precaution.\u201d While it was also understood that Aoife Wafer<\/a> was in the mix, the 2025 Six Nations<\/a> Player of the Championship has not been named.<\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

View Top 50<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

Ireland have made a host of changes after beating Spain, with Neve Jones<\/a> returning to the run-on side at hooker. Jones will pack down alongside Ellena Perry<\/a> and Linda Djougang<\/a>, who have both retained their spots after the win in Northampton.<\/p>\n

Ruth Campbell and Monaghan will combine in the second row yet again, having joined forces most recently in the 42-14 win over Japan. Monaghan\u2019s fellow co-captain Edel McMahon<\/a> starts at openside flanker, with Grace Moore<\/a> and Brittany Hogan<\/a> also in the backrow.<\/p>\n

Aoibheann Reilly is back in the First XV at scrum-half, set to combine with out-half Dannah O\u2019Brien \u2013 who kicked the match-winning conversion against the Black Ferns at WXV 1<\/a> in Vancouver last September.<\/p>\n

Eve Higgins and Aoife Dalton<\/a> are the centre pairing, with Amee-Leigh Costigan and Beibhinn Parsons<\/a> on the wings. Stacey Flood<\/a> rounds out the starting side at fullback, while Ireland have also named more than 130 Tests of experience on the bench.<\/p>\n

This match in Brighton will get underway at 2:45 pm local time on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 1 Meeting<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland team to take on New Zealand at 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/p>\n

15. Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC\/Leinster)(22)<\/p>\n

14. B\u00e9ibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College RFC\/Connacht)(29)<\/p>\n

13. Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC\/Leinster)(26)<\/p>\n

12. Eve Higgins<\/a> (Railway Union RFC\/Leinster)(30)<\/p>\n

11. Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union RFC\/Munster)(21)<\/p>\n

10. Dannah O\u2019Brien (Old Belvedere RFC\/Leinster)(28)<\/p>\n

9. Aoibheann Reilly<\/a> (Blackrock College RFC\/Connacht)(17)<\/p>\n

1. Ellena Perry (Gloucester Hartpury\/IQ Rugby)(3)<\/p>\n

2. Neve Jones (Gloucester Hartpury)(39)<\/p>\n

3. Linda Djougang<\/a> (Old Belvedere RFC\/Leinster)(50)<\/p>\n

4. Ruth Campbell<\/a> (Old Belvedere RFC\/Leinster)(10)<\/p>\n

5. Sam Monaghan (Gloucester Hartpury\/IQ Rugby)(25)(co-captain)<\/p>\n

6. Grace Moore (Trailfinders<\/a> Women\/IQ Rugby)(24)<\/p>\n

7. Edel McMahon (Exeter Chiefs\/Connacht)(35)(co-captain)<\/p>\n

8. Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC\/Ulster)(36)<\/p>\n

Replacements<\/p>\n

16. Cl\u00edodhna Moloney MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs)(47)<\/p>\n

17. Niamh O\u2019Dowd (Old Belvedere RFC\/Leinster)(18)<\/p>\n

18. Sadhbh McGrath<\/a> (Cooke RFC\/Ulster)(18)<\/p>\n

19. Eimear Corri-Fallon (Blackrock RFC\/Leinster)(8)<\/p>\n

20. Claire Boles<\/a> (Railway Union RFC\/Ulster)(7)<\/p>\n

21. Emily Lane<\/a> (Blackrock College RFC\/Munster)(19)<\/p>\n

22. Nancy McGillivray<\/a> (Exeter Chiefs\/IQ Rugby)(2)<\/p>\n

23. Anna McGann<\/a> (Railway Union RFC\/Connacht)(13)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan has overcome an injury concern to face New Zealand in a massive 2025 Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-120513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}