Briggs: Sevens stars won't come in during Six Nations

Ireland backs coach Niamh Briggs say there are no plans to bring their Sevens contingent back into the squad in the second half of the TikTok Women's Six Nations.

Next week's World Series leg in Hong Kong ensured that dual internationals such as Beibhinn Parsons, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Eve Higgins and Lucy Mulhall were not included in the 32-player squad for the Six Nations, which sees Ireland take on Wales in their opening game on Saturday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

After Hong Kong, the Sevens squad have six weeks until the final leg of the World Series in Toulouse, but with Aiden McNulty's side challenging for one of the four automatic Olympic qualification spots available, it appears the XV's team won't be supplementing their squad with any Sevens players later in the championship.

"No, we're really happy with the 32 we’ve selected," the Ireland assistant said, when asked if they would be drafting the likes of Parsons and Murphy Crowe into camp after their Sevens duties in Hong Kong.

"I think we've rewarded girls that have played really well at club, Interpro and Celtic Cup, and it’s a very exciting young group."

Briggs is reporting a "full deck" of players for head coach Greg McWilliams to choose from this week, with no injury concerns.

The majority of the squad have been playing together for several weeks as part of the Combined Provinces XV which beat Welsh and Scottish opponents to win the inaugural Celtic Challenge, while they were joined in camp by their English-based teammates last week.

This will be the first Six Nations championship since the introduction of fully professional contracts in the XV's game.

And Briggs, whose role as as assistant is part-time, says she's been taken aback by the improvements made by