Briggs encouraged by early signs of professionalism

Munster and Ireland coach Niamh Briggs says there are already noticeable improvements in the players who have taken up professional contracts with the IRFU.

It's early days for the Women's 15s High Performance Programme, with 10 players having taken up professional contracts with the IRFU, bringing to 29 the number of professional players across Sevens and 15s.

And while the Sevens players will be unavailable to the provinces for the Vodafone Interprovincial Series due to their World Series commitments this month, the contracted 15s players have been made available to their respective sides.

It means Munster will have centre Enya Breen, and flankers Dorothy Wall and Maeve Óg O'Leary available for Saturday's opener against Ulster at Musgrave Park (4.45pm).

And head coach Briggs, who doubles up as assistant coach for Ireland, says the improvements in their game are already apparent.

"They've been really good," she said of the contracted trio.

"They've come back in incredible shape, they've only been contracted since the start of November, and the differences in their core skills and fitness have been big from where we were in the summer in Japan.

"I'm excited for them to get playing, and they can showcase it. They've been really good."

With those players based full-time out of the IRFU High Performance centre in Dublin, it means Munster and the other provinces only have limited access to the professional players on a training week.

But Briggs says the timeshare hasn't been difficult to manage.

"To be fair to the lads in the IRFU, it's been communicated from day one that we would get them.

"It's a similar working model to how an academy works day-in day-out for AIL teams, you get them for one night a week at training, and we had them