Ireland coach Scott Bemand revealed he had some "tough conversations" with disappointed players before he announced his team to face Italy in Sunday's Women's Six Nations at the RDS.
Sam Monaghan comes back into the side as captain having sat out the opener against France due to concussion protocols. She is one of four changes in the starting 15 from that day-one defeat.
"The girls have been competing hard, so yes, there were some tough conversations," Bemand said. "Yes, there were some high support that we've put in place for girls but they understand where the group is and where they need to be."
"As we move towards professionalism, we’ll pick strongest groups game by game. This is a selection for Italy and it definitely doesn’t rule people out going forward. Yes, there were a couple of very tough discussions based on form as well."
Monaghan comes into the second row to partner Dorothy Wall, replacing Hannah O'Connor, who drops out of the matchday 23.
Last week's captain Edel McMahon is not included in the matchday squad. The flanker's spot in the back row is taken by Grace Moore, who joins Brittany Hogan and Aoife Wafer at the back of the scrum.
The front row is unchanged from Le Mans last week, Neve Jones is at hooker, with Christy Haney and Linda Djougang either side of her.
There are two changes to the backline, Dannah O'Brien getting the nod ahead of Nicole Fowley at out-half, with O'Brien joined by Aoibheann Reilly in the half-backs. Munster's Enya Breen is back in at centre, Aoife Dalton drops to the bench and Eve Higgins will partner Breen in midfield.
Ireland enjoy a "clean bill of health" after the opening weekend of play, according to the coach, who suggested that Breen's quality with the boot helped sway him in her favour over Dalton.
"So we got to get our game going. We got to launch, we got to play in the right areas but we got to get our launches going so Enya’s pretty key to that," Bemand said. "A couple of things that she brings; you mentioned the kicking game. You need multi-kickers on a pitch otherwise any one kicker can be under a little bit of pressure.
"She's also a good baller, a good games player. Good triple threat: carry, distribute, kick. So she’s got good scanning. She can see opportunities and she knows how to bring those bits to life. She gets the nod over Aoife.
"Aoife didn’t do anything wrong last week. Aoife’s a really important player for us. It’s just the split of how we think the game will go. We think we’ll be in a strong position starting with Enya and then bring in Aoife into the fray when the time is right."
Bemand has urged 'game-playing' out-half O’Brien to stamp her authority on the game.
"I would call Dannah a game’s-playing fly-half. She has great footballing pedigree with boot and she sees spaces. She very good with manipulating defences," he said.
"She’s very good at bringing our attack into the game, so I think this is a great opportunity for her to put her best foot forward and drive the show."
The return of Monaghan could help shore up a lineout that lost almost half its throws in the France game. "Sam's a massive player for us both in terms of leadership and the set-piece particularly the lineout. I think you can see the confidence in the girls from having her back in involved in set-piece and around the pitch," Beamand said.
"She [O’Connor] misses out really because Sam’s come back in and there’s certain selections on the bench that we think the game will go in a certain way and we want to be able to utilise that physical capability that Fiona and Eimear bring off the bench."
"We're happy its tracking in the right direction. There’s definitely a few fixes to it from last weekend," he said. "I think Sam coming back into the set-piece definitely gives you a rock which can give you a bit more solidity.
"We had opportunities and unfortunately we couldn’t quite get it going but we’re in a pretty confidence place that we can this weekend.
"There are performances that are going to keep emerging. We encourage the Irish public to come and get behind the girls.
"The graft they’re putting in day in, day out is significant and tough and hard. We want to represent Ireland to the best of our ability. So come and get behind it."
Ireland: L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen, B Parsons; D O'Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney, D Wall, S Monaghan (capt); G Moore, A Wafer, B Hogan.
Replacements: S Delaney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, E Corri, M Scuffil-McCabe, N Fowley, A Dalton.
Watch Ireland v Italy in the Women's Six Nations on Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Scotland v France in the Women's Six Nations on Saturday from 2.05pm on RTÉ Player
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