'If it happens, it happens,' says Brittany Hogan as Ireland eye third place finish in Six Nations

From the small village of Killinchy in Co. Down, Hogan is one of just two Ulster natives in the Ireland starting line-up for the game - the other being Ballymena woman Neve Jones.

She wasn’t involved two years ago when a try and conversion from Enya Breen got Ireland past the Scots with a single point to spare, but it won’t be her first time lining out at the Ravenhill venue.

Having featured there for a Combined Provinces XV in a 19-0 win over a Wales Development XV in February 2023 during the inaugural season of the Celtic Challenge, Hogan returned to Kingspan with the Wolfhounds for the second edition of the same competition earlier this year and scored a try in a 41-10 success against Brython Thunder.

“I’m well acquainted with the pitch. I’m well acquainted with the surroundings and where the nearest coffee shop is even! It's nice to know my surroundings. That’s my home, so it's really nice,” Hogan said in a press conference from the IRFU’s High Performance Centre earlier this week.

“I’ll be able to have a lot of my family come up as well because I’ve got a lot of young cousins who can’t do that travel, so it's really nice that I’ll hopefully have a lot of family support as well.”

Still just 25 years of age, Hogan has been a part of the IRFU system for much of her adult life. After being handed a professional contract with the union’s sevens programme in August 2017, she went on to make her debut in the Dubai leg of the World Series towards the end of the following year.

A 15s test bow eventually arrived against Italy in October 2020 and she is now set to pick up her 23rd cap in the code at Kingspan tomorrow.

“I’m well used to the HPC. It’s kind of my second home now at the moment. I just live around the corner as well. I’m well used to the set-up and playing both 7s and 15s the past couple of years. I’m part of the furniture now apparently!”

Despite being on the receiving end of a chastening 88-10 reversal at the hands of England in Twickenham Stadium last Saturday, Ireland come into the closing weekend of the Championship with a significant prize in their sights.

The result of the earlier kick-off between Wales and Italy in Cardiff will give them a clearer picture of what exactly is required, but Ireland will enter their 2.30pm showdown against the Scots knowing that claiming third place is an achievable goal.

This would help them to seal qualification for next year’s World Cup finals in England and while this autumn’s WXV tournament offers another route to the RWC, Hogan and her team-mates will be doing their utmost to get the job done in Belfast tomorrow.

“Our goal coming into the campaign was that third place, so we can directly qualify. If we have to go a different route, then we have to go a different route. We’re not putting that pressure on ourselves for the weekend.

"It’s just looking to go and perform against Scotland. If it happens, it happens. It would be great, it would mean loads,” Hogan added.

IRELAND: M Deely; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, S Monaghan; A Wafer, E McMahon, B Hogan.

Replacements: C Moloney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, S Ikahihifo, M Scuffil-McCabe, A Dalton, K Heffernan.

SCOTLAND: M Smith; C Grant, E Orr, L Thimson, F McGhie; H Nelson, C Mattinson; M Wright, L Skeldon, C Belisle; E Wassell, L McMillan; R Malcolm, A Stewart, E Gallagher.

Replacements: E Martin, L Bartlett, E Clarke, E Donaldson, R McLachlan, M McDonald, C Bell, N Flynn.