Cliodhna Moloney is not in line for an immediate recall to the Ireland squad but the door is not shut on the Wasps hooker, according to scrum coach Rob Sweeney.
The 28-year-old was a surprise omission from Greg McWilliams first Six Nations squad when it was announced in March.
With Lindsay Peat, Claire Molloy and Ciara Griffin all retiring at the end of last year, Ireland lost a considerable amount of experience as they turned a new page following the failure to qualify for the World Cup.
That made the omission of 31-cap Moloney all the more strange but the head coach insisted it was a decision based on form only and was in no way related to her "slurry" tweet made about comments from former director of women's rugby Anthony Eddy.
The form in open play of Moloney’s direct replacement Neve Jones has been one of the bright spots in a tough campaign for Ireland so far.
Jones (below) has made 35 tackles in the losses to Wales and France, against whom she won her eighth cap.
However, the Gloucester-Hartpury player has also been part of a forward division, whose set-piece, both at lineout and scrum, has malfunctioned to an alarming degree.
Hooker Emma Hooban was an unused replacement against Wales and played 23 minutes off the bench in Toulouse last Saturday as she earned her 10th cap.
Meanwhile, Moloney, who has admitted to being "devastated" at missing out on selection, recently helped Wasps to Premier 15s Cup wins over Durham Sharks, when she scored a try, and Gloucester, and a first-ever Premier 15s victory over Harlequins.
"Cliodhna is a smashing player but I think Greg spoke about it at the start of the tournament. He made the call on that," Sweeney told RTÉ Sport.
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"The door is not closed on Cliodhna, obviously, she still comes up in conversation but if you look at what Neve Jones has done in the last few games, she has been outstanding and there’s no need to drop Neve at the moment.
[Cliodhna] will never be off the cards. At the moment we are backing what we have.
"Neve Jones has been one of our best players for the last two games, she’s been outstanding, her growth has been exponential since she’s gone to Gloucester and come back in.
"She’s really merited being in there."
Ireland host Italy in Musgrave Park on Sunday looking to get their first win on the board before a daunting trip to Welford Road to face England.
While the set-piece disintegrated against France, the side also racked up 27 handling errors, blamed partially by former Connacht forward Sweeney on the team "getting ahead" of themselves.
Asked about the possibility of training against some of the provinces’ underage men’s teams in order to expose them to faster defensive lines and tougher set-pieces, Sweeney said it is something they are exploring.
"It’s a smashing idea, it’s one that I suggested last year when I first came in," he said.
"There was a of Covid [restrictions] going on so it wasn’t really a runner.
"It’s something that we are working on pretty hard at the moment because we see the benefit in it and we know what it would do for the scrum and lineout and things like that.
"We have to be careful still around some of the Covid situation and making sure that that’s okay.
"As soon as we can get something like that against one of the provincial underage sides, 18s, 19s, 20s I think it would be absolutely smashing.
"The girls would go well from it and also it would open the lads’ eyes up to the level that the girls are at as well, which I think would be class."
France won two of Ireland’s scrums and forced the concession of three penalties although that stat would be higher if Les Bleues had not played advantage off several other pack infringements.
Sweeney added: "We knew ourselves going into it that an away trip to France, from playing them last year, that they were going to be very good.
"But the big thing we've taken from it is that it's a massive learning for our girls.
"As mad as it is, to be on the back end of a scrum like that, you do only learn and get better from it. So we've picked out a couple of bits.
"You look at Christy [Haney] who made her debut and she was outstanding.
"Linda [Djougang] played both sides, she did very well. There's a lot of good stuff there and it is the start of this team's journey.
It will be fixed. John Fogarty [men’s scrum coach] is helping me out with it, David Nucifora [high-performance director] was on-site on Saturday helping out, so everyone is pulling together in the right direction with it.
"There's a few bits that we see as key that we're going to work hard on on Thursday and Friday to make right for Sunday. It will be better for Sunday."
Follow Ireland v Italy (Sunday 5pm) in the Women's Six Nations via our live blog on rte.ie/sport and on the RTÉ News App or listen to live radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1. Highlights on Against the Head, Monday, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player 8pm.
