Ireland's Sam Monaghan excited about locking horns with Gloucester team-mates

Sam Monaghan can't wait to test herself against her club team-mates when Ireland host England on Saturday.

Gloucester-Hartpury provide six of the England starting line-up for the TikTok Women’s Six Nations fourth round clash in Cork, including both second rows Zoe Aldcroft and Sarah Beckett.

They will likely face off against Sam Monaghan, Ireland’s player of the year in 2022, who moved from Wasps to Gloucester last summer and has helped the team to second place in the Premier 15s.

Simon Midleton’s side are overwhelming favourites as they chase a Grand Slam, while Ireland are yet to register a single point in a disappointing campaign so far.

"Zoe, World Player of the Year (2021), it’s one of the reasons I went to Gloucester, to learn from her," Monaghan told RTÉ Sport.

"She runs a great lineout and I’ve learned so much from her over the last couple of months. Her experience is invaluable.

"They are two very different players: Zoe (above, right) is such a workhorse and then Beck (above, left) is such strong ball-carrier and a bit of a nuisance around the breakdown as well.

"I’m glad to see her get a start because she definitely deserves it.

"Zoe and I have only played about three of four games together because she was away at the World Cup and then she had a bit of an ankle injury before the Six Nations.

"I am really excited to play against them, it’s great to have that relationship with them and whatever happens on the pitch stays on the pitch.

One of the issues that has plagued Greg McWilliams’ side so far has been a poor lineout return and prop Linda Djougang says they have been working to put it right.

"We’ve been doing a lot of lineouts and challenging ourselves, having contested lineout and mimicking what England are going to