It is another action packed weekend of sport with the Munster SHC kicking off this weekend, Ireland hoping to bounce back in the Guinness Women's Six Nations and the provincial football championships are entering the business end - all you need to know about live sport on TV this weekend.

The Ireland coach will have the experienced Edel McMahon back available in that back row department after she missed out on the defeat to England while centre Enya Breen is also back in the mix having missed the game against the reigning champions.

“Finishing third, it would obviously technically be the same result but competing with the likes of France, I know we probably should've beaten France, and then competing with the likes of England who are the best in the world currently and competing with them for 50 minutes; obviously the scoreline got away from us then, but we want to close that gap on France and England and pull away from the others and I think this campaign can be really successful still, for us."

It’s a scoreline that masks a superb first-half effort from the Irish who took the lead midway through that opening period.

Ireland will take on England on Saturday at Virgin Media Park in Cork.

It’s just shy of a year since Bemand’s side shipped 88 points to the perennial Championship winners in front of almost 49,000 fans at Twickenham.

Ireland face England in the Six Nations at Virgin Media Park in Cork on Saturday. 

Neither Beirne nor Porter was cited by the Six Nations citing officer but Irish management later revealed both player’s families had been targeted for online abuse in the aftermath of Antoine Dupont's injury

Following a 27-15 defeat at the hands of France in the opening round of the tournament in Belfast eight days earlier, Ireland were looking to pick up their first points in the 2025 edition of the Women’s Six Nations in Parma. 

The Ireland scrum-half spent some of her time on the sidelines working the Irish men's team lead performance analyst Vinny Hammond.

Bemand has made three changes to the 15 that started the loss to France in the opening round.

The opening Championship loss to France in Belfast last week was typical of a team that is still finding its feet.

Despite many positives to take from Ireland's performance against France, Aoife Wafer said "the group itself is quite disappointed" with the defeat. 

Most of the Irish players were making a jump up in standards to the highest Test level from a Celtic Challenge tournament that is still failing utterly to stress test them in their iterations as Wolfhounds and Clovers.

This was an eighth straight loss to the French but it should only further belief that they have the beating of them if, as expected, these two meet again come the quarter-final stages of the World Cup later this year in England.

A concern for Ireland starting this tournament against such strong opposition was the facile nature of the Celtic Challenge tournament that these players experienced when playing for the Wolfhounds and Clovers against Welsh and Scottish opposition.

This rings as a warning shot for Ireland as a French side who want to throw off the shackles and just “joueux” can be a formidable and unforgiving opponent.

Although there aren’t any debutants in the match day 23 for tomorrow’s game, Railway Union's Anna McGann will make her first appearance for Ireland under Bemand alongside Costigan and Stacey Flood in the back-three.

England are favourites for a seventh consecutive crown but with eyes turning to the World Cup expect new combinations and the odd upset

Higgins said Ireland's performance at the WXV1 tournament in Canada has boosted her side's belief. 

Ireland defence coach Hugh Hogan said the expectation for his side this weekend in their opening game of the Six Nations is that "we’ll challenge France".

After a shaky Six Nations, Irish players must prove themselves before Andy Farrell finalises his Lions squad for Australia

Rugby needs to get creative if it is to take a bigger slice of the sporting pie.

Senior coach Jacques Nienaber’s was keeping whatever tactical, strategic or personnel ‘learnings’ from Ireland's Six Nations campaign to himself.

O’Mahony came off the bench to a standing ovation from the 30,000 Irish supporters who had invaded the Italian capital on Saturday.