Learning on the fly, dual playmakers, and the Briggs influence - Meet Ireland's newest out-half Nicole Cronin

In recent years, the holder of Ireland's number 10 shirt has seemingly changed with the clocks.

As Johnny Sexton has shown with the Irish men's team, consistency at out-half binds a team together, the beating heart of the whole operation.

And while there are myriad off-the-pitch reasons why the Irish women's team are now building their way back up from the foundations, their hot-desk out-half policy in recent years can't have helped.

In his four seasons in charge, Adam Griggs could never quite settle on his number 10.

Niamh Briggs held the jersey in the New Zealander's first season in charge, but by the end of 2018 the spot had been taken by Nikki Caughey of Leinster.

When the following Six Nations came around he'd changed his mind again, with Connacht's Nicole Fowley the stand-off, before Ellen Murphy - then of Gloucester-Hartpury - came into the starting role in November.

And since the start of 2020 five more out-halves have started games for Ireland, four of whom have done so in the Six Nations.

Claire Keohane was the first-choice for the opening rounds of the 2020 championship, but when the tournament resumed following the Covid-19 lockdown later that year it was Hannah Tyrrell who had been given the job.

In 2021 Tyrrell and Stacey Flood swapped back and forth before the former's retirement last summer, while Enya Breen was also tested out in the 10 shirt for the final game of the Adam Griggs tenure against Japan in November.

It's fair to say out-half has been a problem position for Ireland since the departure of Nora Stapleton in 2017, and just as it was for Griggs, it's the job of new head coach Greg McWilliams to find a long-term tenant in that role.

His choice - for now at least - is Nicole Cronin, an experienced Ireland