“For a lot of reasons moving the Women’s games to Friday nights will be a positive thing. The girls will have to take more time off work for sure, which is hard, but it gets us into a routine.

“It also means they get to go to see the Men’s games and we have a better shot at getting a good crowd. St. Mary’s is a good venue for games under lights.”

It will be O’Sullivan’s second Six Nations tournament with Ireland but this year’s build-up has no comparison with that of twelve months ago.

“I was appointed Irish coach last year in November with just one Interpro game to play so I didn’t get much preparation time. We didn’t have the November sessions which we do now so that will make a huge difference I feel.

“A week in Spain with the squad, where we hope to play two games, will be another boost and we have three home games this year against Italy, Wales and Scotland which will benefit us, as opposed to a lot of travelling,” O’Sullivan added.

In terms of preparation, O’Sullivan is also pleased with how events are being organised. “Things have also changed for us in an organisation capacity with the IRFU coming on board and taking over planning issues such as hotel bookings and flight details and that really makes a massive difference to our preparation.”

Aisling Halpin (15), from Howth, says:
“There’s no doubt it was Brian O’Driscoll that inspired me, I remember watching an Ireland game when I was quite young.”

“When I heard the commentator raise his voice in a wave of excitement, I turned to see what was going on. Running down the centre of the pitch, dodging a number of opponents, as they tried their utmost to stop him in his tracks, was a young Brian O’Driscoll. He was a new addition to the Ireland team, an addition that would soon be valued as possibly one of the world’s best centres. I knew nothing about the game but I realised what he had just done was brilliant and required skill and excellence. It wasn’t long before I wanted to do it too.”
That summer, Aisling joined a summer camp at her local rugby club. Aisling soon showed her talent for the game. It turned out she was a natural.

Unfortunately at the age of 13 Aisling found herself with no rugby, as that is the age where she had to stop playing in mixed teams with the boys – so she’s coaching the 8 year olds at her former club.

Aisling says it would be possible to train with a ladies’ team now, but she would have to wait until her 18th birthday to play in a competitive match.

She believes that women’s rugby is on the increase in Ireland, with more girls taking it up every year.