Sarah Kelleher will become only the second Irish woman to win 100 senior international caps when she lines out against Scotland today in Ireland's opening fixture of the Four Nations tournament at Belfield. Only Mary Logue, another native of Cork and the current Irish captain, has won more caps for her country.
The occasion will complete a week to remember for London-based Kelleher who helped her club Slough win the English Premiership title last weekend, scoring one of their goals in a 4-2 win over Clifton in the play-off final. Victory in next weekend's English cup final would clinch an unprecedented treble for the club who are already national indoor champions.
For now, though, Kelleher's thoughts are on this weekend's tournament when Ireland, who play Russia tomorrow and England on Sunday, should face their most difficult series of matches since Riet Kuper took charge in February last year. Sunday's game will be of particular interest to the Irish who are drawn in the same European Nations' Cup pool as England.
The tournament marks the beginning of a string of matches against strong opposition in the build-up to August's finals in Germany, including games against World Cup silver medallists Holland and fellow European finalists Belgium, France and the Czech Republic.
"If you want to move forward they're the teams you have to play," said Kuper. "We have good opposition in our build-up so I think we can learn a lot from those matches. This weekend will give me an idea of where we are, where we stand and how we can cope with teams of this quality.
"We are definitely making progress, I can see it. I think we are playing much better now than in Helsinki (where Ireland played in last summer's European Nations' Cup Qualifier) - the skills, tactical awareness, team work, movement of the ball is all getting better. Now I just want to see how far we've moved on. The results aren't too important for now, just how we play - we have time to work on the results.["]
England are captained by the world's most capped player, Karen Brown, who is one of six survivors from their last meeting with Ireland at the 1997 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which the English won 3-1.
Many of the Russian line-up will also be familiar to the Irish - nine of the players who helped beat Ireland 4-2 in the seventh-eighth place play-off in Zimbabwe are in this weekend's squad, including Marina Tchegourdaeva who scored six goals against Leinster on Wednesday afternoon.
Scotland, today's opponents, are in the middle of a rebuilding phase after a disappointing 10th-place finish at last summer's World Cup but still have a group of vastly experienced players to call upon, including Sue Fraser (who has over 200 caps for Scotland and Britain combined), goalkeeper Tracy Robb, Carrie Corcoran and Sue Gilmour.
Caitriona Carey (Hermes), Linda Caulfield (Trinity), Pamela Magill (Pegasus) and Jill Orbinson (Portadown) could all win their first senior caps this weekend, having only appeared in unofficial internationals so far this season.
Irish Squad: J Stewart (Ards), L McVicker (Ballymoney), K Humphreys (Bonagrass Grove), R Kohler, K O'Brien (all Harlequins), T Browne, S Hilliard, D Sixsmith, M Logue (capt), C Carey, J Burke (all Hermes), C O'Kelly (Loreto), A Thompson, C McMahon, P Magill (all Pegasus), J Orbinson (Portadown), S Kelleher (Slough), L Caulfield (Trinity).
England: H Rose, J Smith, K Brown (capt), T Cullen, J Sixsmith, L Newcombe, F Greenham, J Bimson, S Blanks, D MarstonSmith, S Chandler, K Walsh, K Roberts, L King, L Catchpole, A Bennett.
Scotland: T Robb, K Goldsack, S Fraser, V Neil, C Corcoran, E Rochlin, L Gordon, A Denholm, H Walker, C Semple, L Burton, S Mitchell, S Gilmour, A Grant, G Soutar, S Judge, J Wilson, L Clement.
Russia: I Piskounova, T Vasioukova, I Sviridova, E Polovkova, N Tchegourdaeva, M Tchegourdaeva, E Koundroutskaya, O Nikoloeva, N Kravtchenko, O Boiko, T Youdovskaya, O Velmatkina, G Basaitchouk, N Vershinina, T Timchina, N Dobrokhotova.
FOUR NATIONS TOURNAMENT - Today: Russia v England, 12.0; Ireland v Scotland, 2.0. Tomorrow: Ireland v Russia, 12.0; England v Scotland, 2.0. Sunday: Scotland v Russia, 12.0; Ireland v England, 2.0.
