Forward Brittany Hogan is free to play in Ireland’s 150th Anniversary Test match against Australia at Ravenhill on Saturday.
Ulster’s Hogan attended a disciplinary hearing last week for the red card she received for a tackle on Grace Browne Moran in the inter-provincial defeat to Connacht in Belfast a fortnight ago.
However, Hogan has been cleared to play against the Wallaroos.
“Brittany had a hearing Wednesday of last week, the outcome of which was that there was no foul play and she is now available for selection,” confirmed Hugh Hogan, Ireland’s new defence coach, yesterday.
“We’ve a fit deck essentially from the selected panel we named, bar one or two players who have been medically ruled out already.
“We just had a pretty tasty training session with a high level of competition and the girls have come through really well.”
Hogan has been the Ireland women’s defence coach for six weeks after he took over from Declan Danaher, who was in the position for one season.
Hogan spent nine years working with Leinster Rugby and was promoted to contact skills coach with the men’s team under Leo Cullen in 2017.
He also had stints working as a defence coach with the Welsh side Scarlets as well as a defence and breakdown coach for Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath out in Japan.
“Three years ago, I left Ireland to go coach abroad. I had brilliant experiences in both Wales and Japan.
“I can honestly say that I’m now a much better coach for the experiences I have had.
“I think I was aware at Leinster that I was very fortunate to continue to learn in a great environment from great coaches and with great players, but it was always part of my vision really to try and challenge myself outside of that environment.
“Without doubt, it has helped me to become a better coach.”
This is Hogan’s first time coaching a women’s rugby team.
“I hadn’t coached women’s rugby before six weeks ago,” Hogan added yesterday afternoon.
“We have a brilliant group here and they’re inquisitive, they’re incredibly hard-working and they want to learn quickly.
“They’re very adaptive as well. I give the players a lot of credit.”
After this weekend’s game with Australia, Ireland have a tough WXV1 campaign coming up in Vancouver, where they will play New Zealand, Canada and the USA. So what will a Hogan defence look like?
“We want to be aggressive,” he added. “We want to go and have a mindset of getting the ball back.
“It’s really important that we’re building on the foundations of what went on in the Six Nations before with Declan Danaher.
“We saw a really good growth in this team in defence, so it’s about how we can add layers on top of what’s already in place.”