Former England prop makes shock switch to Ireland ahead of World Cup

Ellena Perry is named on the bench for Ireland's warm-up with Canada

While Irish football fans are fairly used to players switching allegiances to the England team, the Ireland rugby team have grabbed one for their own.

Ahead of the Rugby World Cup, former England prop Ellena Perry is set to make a surprise debut for Ireland in their final warm-up game against Canada on Saturday.

Perry, who plays for Gloucester-Hartpury, made 11 appearances for England, the last coming in November 2020.

Because she has not played international rugby for over three years, Perry is now eligible to change countries, and qualifies for Ireland via her maternal grandfather.

Scott Bemand, Ireland’s head coach going into the World Cup, would know Perry from his time as England assistant coach when she was in the squad.

Ireland play Canada in Belfast at midday on Saturday, having beaten Scotland 27-21 last weekend at Virgin Media Park in Cork.

They begin their World Cup campaign in England on August 24, against Japan, before facing Spain on August 31 and New Zealand on September 7.

Perry is Ireland’s only uncapped player in the squad, with Bemand making a total of 10 changes from the win over Scotland.

Having failed to qualify for the 2022 Rugby World Cup, Ireland go into the tournament as outsiders in the competition, at 50/1 with some bookmakers to win.

England are favourites, followed by New Zealand and Canada.

Ireland’s best result at a World Cup was fourth place in 2014.

Ireland team (v Canada): S Flood; B Parsons, A Dalton, E Breen, A McGann; D O’Brien, A Reilly; N O’Dowd, N Jones (co-capt), L Djougang, R Campbell, F Tuite; G Moore, I Kiripati, B Hogan.

Replacements: C Moloney-MacDonald, E Perry, S McGrath, E Corri-Fallon, S Monaghan (co-capt), C Boles, E Lane, E Higgins