Ireland players would be in the mix for Lions selection if a women's team was set up, says Adam Griggs.

The British and Irish Lions have been touring since 1888 and currently rotate to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, where they are due to tour this summer, once every four years.

study is under way to find out if such a project for the women’s teams of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England is feasible with a report due at the end of the year.

Of those countries, only England have a full-time professional squad, with the other sides playing as amateurs or semi-pro in some cases.

However, Ireland head coach Griggs, whose side open their Six Nations campaign against Wales tomorrow, reckons a number of players from Ireland would be considered.

"I’ve read it in the papers and that's all I know about it, that they are looking into the viability of it," he said.

"I think it’s a great idea and I do think we’ve got players who could step into that jersey, 100%.

Ciara Griffin on the charge 

"You've got Claire Molloy, one of our most capped players, still playing really good football.

"Our captain, Ciara Griffin, can compete with the best of the best.

"If there was a selection coming up, I’m sure we’d have players from Ireland in that squad." 

Covid-19 restrictions have resulted in a reformatted Six Nations tournament, with each team having three games in total.

Ireland's last competitive outing came last October against Italy but Griggs insists he won’t use the lack of game time as an excuse ahead of their clash in Cardiff Arms Park.

"I expect that there will be mistakes in this game," said the New Zealander.

"I don't want to hide from the fact that we haven't played an international Test match in six months. 


Higgins set for Ireland debut against Wales


What we are trying to highlight and drive is that we don’t let slip our intensity and tempo of how we want to play.

"The players are talking about how they feel the fittest and fastest and strongest they’ve been, so we have to make sure we put that into practice and drive standards from our side.

"There’ll be times when they’ll put us under pressure and have that purple patch, but we are certainly targetting a win. 

"We’ve been successful against them before and no doubt going over there against a wounded team and them playing at home, they’ll be targetting us.

"I believe we’ve got the talent in the squad to go over there and do the job." 

Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple PodcastsSoundcloudSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Wales v Ireland (5pm, Saturday) via our live blog on RTE.ie and the RTÉ News app or watch live on RTÉ2 or RTÉ Player, listen live on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.