{"id":483870,"date":"2026-03-19T10:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483870\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:53:08","slug":"womens-six-nations-nine-uncapped-players-in-ireland-squad-but-amee-leigh-costigan-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483870\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Six Nations: Nine uncapped players in Ireland squad but Amee-Leigh Costigan out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has named nine uncapped players in his Women’s Six Nations squad but key winger Amee-Leigh Costigan is out. <\/p>\n

Costigan, who captained Ireland in last year’s Six Nations defeats by France and England and scored two tries at last year’s World Cup, recently announced she is pregnant with twins. <\/p>\n

The 36-player squad will be led by flanker Erin King, who was named captain in January after missing the World Cup with a knee injury. <\/p>\n

Bemand’s uncapped cohort includes Leinster back-three player Robyn O’Connor, who starred for the Ireland Under-20s in last year’s Six Nations women’s summer series and has scored four tries for the Wolfhounds in this season’s Celtic Challenge.<\/p>\n

O’Connor, 20, is one of four uncapped backs alongside Alana McInerney, Caitriona Finn and Niamh Gallagher, with forwards Beth Buttimer, Jemima Adams Verling, Eilis Cahill, Aoibheann McGrath and Sophie Barrett also hoping to make their senior debut. <\/p>\n

“It’s wonderful news about Amee-Leigh,” Bemand, who signed a contract extension on Wednesday<\/a>, told BBC Sport NI.<\/p>\n

“The world where female athletes can have a family and a baby and be supported in that, I think the IRFU are doing a really good job on supporting her.<\/p>\n

“She is still in on the centralised programme and training at an appropriate level, and it’s great news.”<\/p>\n

Bemand added that Ireland had a “strong core” from last year’s World Cup, along with some rising stars who have come through Ireland’s pathway.<\/p>\n

“We had a positive three-day camp in January to lay the foundations for what’s ahead and the group – both players and staff – are excited to come back together now to narrow the focus on the challenges ahead.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has named nine uncapped players in his Women’s Six Nations squad but key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-483870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}