WITHOUT A competitive fixture since the conclusion of last year’s campaign, a 31-0 reverse at home to England, Ireland’s women will open their Six Nations account against Wales this Friday as something of an unknown quantity with two new caps in their ranks.

While outhalf Lynne Cantwell will add to her record 67 caps, lining out alongside Amy Davis for the first time, Ashleigh Baxter and Sophie Spence will make their international bows in Ashbourne.

In addition, there are four newcomers among the replacements as coach Philip Doyle seeks to reverse a trend of home defeats that hasn’t seen the side win on home soil since March 2010.

Ireland pushed Wales all the way last term, going down by a point in Cross Keys despite Gillian Bourke scoring two tries, and despite the lack of game time, captain Fiona Coghlan is confident a four-week training camp will pay dividends.

“We are in a positive place given the preparation we have had,” Coghlan said this week. “Every team wants more game time. We haven’t played in a year so we would love to have had but you have to just get on with it. As a player you want to play as many games as possible but that’s what we are dealt.

“We will have had four weekends together and there are some new faces in the squad, so it will be good to see how they gel with the side in the first game out against Wales.

“The Welsh are similar to ourselves in that we haven’t had much time in games to work on things, so I would say we will be fairly even.”

IRELAND WOMEN(v Wales): A Baxter (Ulster); N Kavanagh (Munster), N Briggs (Munster), G Davitt (Ulster), A Miller (Connacht); L Cantwell (Exile), A Davis (Leinster); F Coghlan (Leinster), G Bourke (Munster), A Egan (Leinster); ML Reilly (Leinster), S Spence (Exile); L Guest (Munster), C Molloy (Exile), J Neville (Munster). Replacements: Paula Fitzpatrick (Leinster), R O'Reilly (Connacht), S Fleming (Munster), H O'Brien (Munster), L Muldoon (Ulster), N Caughey (Ulster), AN Other.