The 20-year-old Connacht flanker starts alongside Erin King and Aoife Wafer for Ireland’s first Test at Tallaght Stadium.
Connacht flanker Jemima Adams Verling will make her Ireland debut against the United States at Tallaght Stadium on Sunday, in the opening fixture of the WXV Global Series.
The 20-year-old is the only uncapped player in Scott Bemand’s starting side and packs down at blindside between captain Erin King and Aoife Wafer, who was named Player of the Championship at the Six Nations.
Adams Verling, of Galwegians, represented Ireland at the Under-18 Women’s Six Nations Festival in 2024 and featured in last season’s Under-21 series. Bemand said the presence of two established operators either side of her gives the debutant every chance to settle.
Kick-off is at 1.45pm, with the match live on the TG4 Player. It is the first time Ireland have played a Test at Tallaght Stadium.
The selection
Stacey Flood starts at full-back, with Robyn O’Connor and Vicky Elmes Kinlan on the wings. Aoife Dalton and Eve Higgins form the midfield partnership, and Dannah O’Brien is at out-half alongside scrum-half Emily Lane.
Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald and Linda Djougang pack down in the front row, with Dorothy Wall and Fiona Tuite-O’Sullivan in the second.
Neve Jones, Sadhbh McGrath, Eilis Cahill, Jane Clohessy and Brittany Hogan provide the forward cover, with Aoibheann Reilly, Anna McGann and Niamh Gallagher completing the matchday 23.
Three Munster players are involved, with Lane starting and Clohessy and Cahill named among the replacements.
A changed USA
The visitors arrive without Ilona Maher, the sport’s most recognisable figure globally, who has been left out of their WXV squad. The 30-year-old had featured in all three of the United States’ pool matches at last year’s World Cup.
It is a much-changed American side more generally, now coached by Jack Hanratty. The Skerries native took charge at the start of the year and has spoken of the travel demands of the role, estimating he has taken more than forty flights since his appointment.
Ireland beat the United States when the sides last met in WXV1 in 2024, a tournament in Canada during which Bemand’s team also defeated the reigning world champions New Zealand.
The 2026 edition marks the start of a fixed three-year cycle running to 2028, aligned with qualification for the 2029 World Cup. Positions within the series were set by rankings at the end of the 2024 competition and remain in place throughout the cycle. The format was announced in September 2025 during the World Cup in England.
Building the squad
Bemand has said he intends to introduce new players across this block of fixtures while retaining the established core of the group, with the season following the milestone Six Nations campaign earlier in the year.
He recounted that Adams Verling learned she was playing when the reaction from her room became audible as he walked through the team hotel.
The head coach has also challenged his players to be less deferential in their approach, framing the campaign as an opportunity for the squad to assert itself rather than wait for opponents to dictate.
Ireland’s win over New Zealand in Vancouver in 2024, sealed by a late Dannah O’Brien kick, remains the high point of Bemand’s tenure and the result against which subsequent performances have been measured.
Wafer, now with Harlequins, and King, of Old Belvedere and Leinster, have emerged as the leadership axis of the side, with King captaining from number seven on Sunday.
