'You have to be excited about it' - Ireland can't be overwhelmed by English challenge

Ireland have to embrace the challenge of this week's TikTok Women's Six Nations trip to face runaway leaders England in Leicester on Sunday, according to centre Enya Breen.

Greg McWilliams side will have a thankless task at Welford Road on Sunday as they face an English side who have averaged more than 60 points per game in their opening three victories, and are expected to comfortably make it four wins from four ahead of a potential Grand Slam decider against France net weekend.

To add to the Irish challenge, the upcoming HSBC Sevens World Series leg in Langford, Canada has seen seven members of their squad unavailable to face England, with six of those players having played in all three games of the championship.

As well as that, injuries to forwards Sam Monaghan and Aoife Wafer mean there will be at least eight changes to the matchday squad when McWilliams names his team tomorrow.

Breen is likely to be promoted to the starting team for this weekend's Round 4 clash, having featured off the bench in the opening three games.

The Munster back is expected to link up with Sene Naoupu in the centre, and says Ireland can't allow themselves to be intimidated by the professional English side.

"You have to be excited about it," said Breen, who turns 23-years-old on Saturday.

"Yes, it's going to be a massive challenge but they’re the best team in the world and if we want to put ourselves up on that level we kind of have to be excited about it.

"There’s no point in being afraid because that’s when we’ll start going into our shells so we have to be excited and hopefully, if I get an opportunity to play, then that’s what I’ll do. There’s no point in playing with fear.

"We took some tough lessons from the first two weeks but it was great to