Dalton, who only turned 23 last Sunday, has been one of the first names on the Ireland Women’s teamsheet over the last two years, starting 14 of their last 15 Test matches going back to 2024’s WXV1 campaign.
The familiar centre pairing of Dalton and Eve Higgins kicked off the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations together against England, before IQ Rugby recruit Nancy McGillivray made her first two Championship starts in Galway and Clermont-Ferrand, alongside the Offaly native.
Higgins is the preferred option at number 12 for Saturday’s visit of Wales to Belfast, with Scott Bemand’s chosen midfield duo boasting 66 Test caps between them, eleven more than the starting Welsh centres, Carys Cox and Courtney Keight.
Speaking about teaming up with different centre partners across this year’s tournament, Dalton said: “We always rep in and rep it out with each other at training. So, like it’s nothing new for any of us. I’m very fortunate in my position, across 12 and 13 we have so much depth.
“In training there is a lot of rotation and stuff, so it’s nothing really new. We’ve all played together before, but they’re two great players, Eve and Nancy, and they help me a lot out there. I’m very grateful for them.
“Eve has a bit more experience under her belt. She’s more caps than me and Nancy. We’re lucky that we can afford to kind of all rotate with each other.
“Nancy is a proper power player. You would have seen when she came on against England, the breaks she was making.”
For the second of their three home games in the 2026 Six Nations, Ireland are heading north to return to Affidea Stadium, the home of Ulster Rugby, where they produced some memorable performances in recent seasons.
They have beaten Scotland there during the 2022 and 2024 Six Nations, the latter win securing their qualification for last year’s Rugby World Cup. Just over four months later they were back in Belfast for a statement 36-10 victory over Australia in the IRFU’s 150th Anniversary fixture.
Bemand’s side also put it up to France and Canada at Ulster’s home ground last year, scoring four tries against the Canadians who went on to reach the World Cup final. Finishing the Championship with back-to-back home fixtures has Dalton itching to get out there.
“I can’t wait now, especially with two home games,” she commented. “We haven’t thought too much about the one next week (at the Aviva Stadium), but this week we’ve really good memories in Belfast with the 150th anniversary game against Australia.
“I know we didn’t win the French game last year, but the crowd were amazing up there, and they always get behind us.
“We’re really excited and it’s our chance now to push on and try and get two more home wins.”
The down week afforded the Ireland players the chance to recharge their batteries and also work closely with their coaches on the things that let them down in the 26-7 defeat to France in Clermont.
The most obvious work-on was their execution in attack, as they left a number of tries behind them in the first half – three scores were chalked off for a double movement, being held up, and a knock-on – while they were disappointed to miss 20% of their tackles during the closing 40 minutes.
However, Dalton feels the squad are in a good place to ‘go up another level’ against Wales, who may be sitting at the bottom of the table but picked up an impressive try-scoring bonus point away to World champions England in the last round.
“We were definitely glad of it (the week’s break in matches). Probably we didn’t realise how much of an effect it would have on you, three games in a row.
“It’s usually two and then a break for us, so the three was definitely different, and two tough away games. But we had a really good training week last week, we were only in the two days.
“We were fresh coming into this week, and we can’t wait for this weekend against a Welsh side who put it right up to England. They scored four tries against them in Ashton Gate.”
The Wolfhounds’ Celtic Challenge-winning captain continued: “Yeah, definitely (Wales are dangerous). They have a good strong pack and once they get that maul going, they are hard to stop.
“We’ve reviewed them, but when we’re going into this weekend, we’re very much focused on ourselves and trying to put our performance out there, whether that’s through defence or attack.
“Every game we approach, we try not to dwell on the opposition too much. We review them, but it’s all about putting ourselves out there.”
Ireland have a very strong record in this match-up, winning 12 of their 16 Six Nations clashes with Wales since the start of 2010. They have also already come up against a good chunk of this Welsh squad in either this season’s Celtic Challenge, or in the PWR for the players based in England.
Dalton was a second half replacement for the 36-5 bonus point win over Wales at Virgin Media Park two years ago. She paired up with Enya Breen in the centre for Ireland’s 40-14 triumph at Rodney Parade in the penultimate round of the 2025 Championship.
The girls in green ran in ten tries across those two games, and while their performance against the French last time out was a losing one, it still gives them a lot to build on as they look to be more clinical with their scoring opportunities during the final two rounds.
Dalton acknowledged: “Just taking our chances when they come. When you come up against those teams, especially the top four (in the world), it’s just the finer margins.
“Just small kind of technical aspects (let us down). You’d be surprised like, they might even be in the phase earlier or it’s just small little changes and tweaks.
“We’re very lucky with the coaches we have. ‘Steeno’ (Gareth Steenson), Al (O’Connor), and ‘Scays’ (James Scaysbrook), they go over it with us.
“Kind of just walk us through it and then it’s our responsibility to put it out on the pitch. We’ve been trying to do that last week and this week, so hopefully it comes through now at the weekend.”