Ireland fullback Stacey Flood is no stranger to playing on the big stage – a star of the Ireland 7s side on the international circuit for several seasons, she also represented Ireland in the women’s Rugby Sevens tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, starting all six of Ireland’s matches as fly-half as they made their historic debut in the event.
On Sunday she is likely to be part of the Ireland team that brings a record crowd for a Women’s game in Ireland to Aviva Stadium. For Flood, who grew up not far from the stadium, it is a historic moment,
“It’s going to be such a historic game for women’s rugby in Ireland. I think it’s shown the path that women’s rugby in general is starting to set, like 77,000 in Twickenham, 19,000 last week in Clermont, the crowd was amazing, Dexcom 9,000 (against Italy in Galway).
18 April 2026; Ireland supporters cheer their team after the Women’s Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at Dexcom Stadium in Galway. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
“We’re getting where the team wants to go and where women’s rugby is going. It’s an amazing time for the sport and I think playing in the home of rugby in Ireland is going to be phenomenal.
“And I think the crowd will really fill the stadium with noise. All the crowds have been great so far, and it’s amazing to see the game growing and pushing on to that next level.”
This is not the first Women’s international to be played in Aviva Stadium, that happened in 2014 as part of a double header with the Men’s team, but it is the first stand alone match and as such it will mark another step in the growth of the game in Ireland.
“I grew up literally walking past it nearly every day. So it’s pretty amazing to see how far our game has come to not having any women’s games there to now, you see the Irish soccer team playing there so often.
“Hopefully that comes from our game as well, that we’ll get to play there a little bit more. I wouldn’t have gone to see any rugby games there when I was younger. But it was always just in the background of where I grew up.
“And I think it’s an amazing moment for women’s sport to have that there and be back at the home of rugby.”
The importance of the occassion is one thing but there is still a match to be played, against a Scotland team that caused Ireland problems last year.
“We lost against them last year narrowly, but I think we’ve come so far as a squad since then. We’re a different team altogether in a good sense that we don’t look individuals anymore. We are a unit and we play as one and you can really see that.
“Stuff we’ve been working on has been coming out in games. That’s really pleasing to see. But yeah, I think just going out there, starting fast and then getting the performance we want, sticking to our game plan and just executing that is really important for us.”