Women’s Six Nations: Ireland aim to continue progress despite tough France opener

Last season’s joint-captain Sam Monaghan remains unavailable as she continues to recover from the knee injury she sustained when playing for her club Gloucester-Hartpury last June while Beibhinn Parsons is also still out after suffering a second leg break in five months while on Ireland Sevens duty in December.

“Sam’s not going to be fit for the tournament. Our target now is to get her back to full fitness pre the World Cup,” said Hogan, who revealed that Monaghan returned home recently to undertake her rehab with the Ireland medical team.

“We do expect Beibhinn to be fit at some stage during the tournament. I couldn’t give you an exact date at the moment but she’s becoming more and more involved.”

On the plus side, back Stacey Flood and hooker Cliodhna Moloney will be available for selection for the Kingspan Stadium contest after overcoming recent injuries.

“We’ve had four weeks of three-day training camps leading into our first Test this year and overall we’ve a pretty healthy squad,” added Hogan.

“We had two or three players coming back from injury who are now back in the reckoning for selection which is wonderful.”

The majority of Ireland players were in a training environment for a number of months with the Clovers and Wolfhounds before linking up with the national squad but Hogan acknowledged there will be a big step up in standard from the Celtic Challenge, which the two Irish sides dominated.