'Emotional' King ready for Ireland return

Ireland captain Erin King said "it means everything" for her to make a return to the side for their Women's Six Nations opener against England at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.

King sustained a knee injury in the defeat by the Red Roses in the 2025 Six Nations which forced her to miss the World Cup.

Named captain for this year's tournament, King will make her first international appearance in a year when she leads Ireland out against the world champions, something she is grateful to do after a long journey back to full fitness.

"It's a bit emotional for myself, the fact it's almost a year to the day [since the injury], it's really emotional," she said.

"A lot of hard work to [get back] and to get to do it with this team of amazing girls, I'm so lucky to be in the position I'm in."

The 22-year-old starts at flanker against England, who are looking to win an eighth Six Nations in a row.

The game at the Allianz Stadium is set to be played in front of a tournament record crowd of 75,000 as England contest their first game since winning the World Cup.

The Red Roses recorded their highest points win over Ireland with an 88-10 victory the last time the sides met at the London venue in 2024, but King believes Ireland have taken learnings from that experience and will not be overawed by the occasion.

"It's lovely walking out, we will have a few laughs and smiles on our faces. It's a beautiful stadium and we can't wait to get going," she said.

"A lot of people talk about the noise in here. Some of the girls have played Prem [Premiership Women's Rugby] games in here. Aoife Wafer has talked about it and even with 40,000 in the stadium you can't hear yourself, so we're really excited and can't wait to hear the sound of the stadium.

"We've talked about how big the occasion is going to be, but for us we're just focusing on ourselves and the match and the job at hand.

"We want to enjoy it, it's an amazing experience and it's great we're hopefully selling out stadiums, but at the end of the day we're here to do a job and that's what we're focusing on."

After taking on England, Ireland have a home game against Italy in Galway before they travel to take on France in round three.

Scott Bemand's side round off the championship with back-to-back home games in Belfast and Dublin against Wales and Scotland.

While they are huge underdogs to be the side to end England's 34-game unbeaten run, King is delighted they have the chance to spring an upset in the first game.

"It's nice to have a challenge first," she said. "We've done things in the past people didn't think we could do and for me personally, I'm embracing the challenge and we've spoken about that as a team and we're excited to take it on."