The IRFU will be represented in the inaugural edition of the Celtic Challenge Cup in February next year by a Combined Provinces XV, sponsored by Vodafone, under the guidance of the national team coaching group led by Greg McWilliams and John McKee.
The squad will be based at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre on the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin with the side’s two home fixtures to be played at the home of Ulster Rugby, the Kingspan Stadium, Belfast on the 4th and 18th of February.
The Combined Provinces playing squad will comprise of contracted XVs players and Club players under consideration for the 2023 TikTok Six Nations Championships which commences at the end of March.
The tournament has been created by the IRFU, the Welsh and Scottish Rugby Unions, and is supported by World Rugby to give more development time and opportunity to players in the Women’s game.
Each team will play two games at home and two games away with the competition concluding four weeks prior to the start of the 2023 TikTok Six Nations Championship.
The ambition is to launch a full, six-team tournament in 2024 featuring two sides from each Union, but for the moment it is a very positive step that will come off the back of the Interpro tournament, also sponsored by Vodafone, which will be played in January.
It means that the Irish group will go into the TikTok Women’s Six Nations and the remainder of the season in a better-prepared set up than has ever been the case.
“The three partner Unions have worked closely together to put the necessary supports in place to help establish this competition,” said Gillian McDarby, IRFU Head of Women’s Performance and Pathways.
“It is vital at this stage of the sport’s development that we establish sustainable competition models that bridge the gap between the player pathway and the international game.”
“The ambition across the three Unions is to increase the number of competing teams in 2024 to six and over the course of the next 3-5 years it is the IRFU’s ambition to have four Irish teams competing in this tournament.”
“The Celtic Challenge comes directly after the interprovincial series which will give players the opportunity to build form and match sharpness coming into this new competition,” added Ireland Head Coach, Greg McWilliams.
“As a coaching group it gives us the chance to spend six weeks working with a group of established and emerging players ahead of the Six Nations.”
The Welsh and Scottish unions are using the tournament as a development pathway looking at rising talent as well as a mix of home-based contracted players.
The Irish Team wil play the Welsh team in Cardiff on January 29th and the Scots in Edinburgh on February 25th either side of the two home games in Belfast.
