Full-back Stacey Flood says Ireland must “win the little moments” when they come up against world number one side and defending champions England in their Women’s Six Nations match in Cork on Saturday.
Flood, a sevens specialist who was part of the Ireland team at the Paris Olympics, is back in the XVs fold and eager to face England for the first time in the latter code.
Ireland earned a shock win over then world number one ranked New Zealand during their WXV1 campaign in the autumn and Flood hopes they can cause another upset.
“It’s going to be tough but we’ve shown what we can do against bigger sides and we really test ourselves and believe in ourselves,” she said.
“We just have to have confidence in the abilities we have and win the little moments and then see what the outcome is.
“You shouldn’t be afraid who is standing next to you because on the starting whistle it’s just 15 women against 15 women.”
Ireland finished third in last year’s Six Nations and gave France a scare in this year’s tournament, before seeing off Italy in their second match of the competition.
“I wasn’t involved last year but I know the team has come on leaps and bounds in what we’re doing now and we’ve shown that and we’ve built so much throughout the last 12 months.
“It’s a completely different side and we have way more belief and confidence in our abilities and our structure and we are one unit. I think that will stand to us a lot this weekend in Cork.”
Flood, who can also play at centre or fly-half, says she is happy to “take a green jersey in any position” and welcomes the opportunity to test herself against the Red Roses’ back three.
“Coming up against one of the best back threes in the world is going to be great. There’s no better way to test yourself than playing against the best and we are well capable of it.
“Our kicking game is obviously a big part of our game and we’ve been working on that non stop for the past few months so I think it will stand to us.
“They will have a good kicking game so there should be good battles but hopefully we’ll come out on top in most of them.”
