Erin King has been confirmed as the new captain of the Ireland women's rugby team ahead of the 2026 Guinness Six Nations later this year.
King, who recently made her comeback from a serious knee injury, takes over the role from Sam Monaghan and the injured Edel McMahon, who have shared the captaincy since the appointment of head coach Scott Bemand in 2023.
"I was already so honoured to play on this team and to captain it, to be honest, it's really hard to put into words," King told RTÉ Sport.
"I definitely was very pleasantly surprised and can't wait to get cracking. It's an absolute honour for me and my family, for where I'm from. I can't wait to do the country proud and to do the girls really proud.
"I've worked really hard this past year, but I would have never imagined this would have come of it. It's a job that I think I'm fully capable of and I can't wait to get going."
The Australia-born, Wicklow-raised back row is still quite inexperienced at international level, with the 22-year-old just seven caps into her Test career.
A former Ireland Sevens international, King switched across to the longer form of the game after the Paris Olympics in 2024, and was a key player for Bemand's side as they produced a surprise second-place finish at WXV1 that year, while her performances were recognised with World Rugby's Women's XV Breakthrough Player of the Year award (below).
King continued to be an influential presence in the Six Nations last year, playing every minute of Ireland's first three games, and being their leading lineout option and rucking threat, before a rare knee cartilage injury saw her ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, as well as the World Cup in September.
Having initially set a February target for her return, the versatile back row made her comeback ahead of schedule for the Wolfhounds in the Celtic Challenge on 3 January, coming through the return unscathed.
The appointment of King to the role of captain points to a long-term strategy by the Irish coaches, with The Leinster forward among a large crop of players still 25 and under, which also includes Aoife Wafer, Béibhinn Parsons, Ruth Campbell, Dorothy Wall, Niamh O'Dowd, Dannah O'Brien and Aoife Dalton.
It's believed the Irish coaching staff have been blown away by how quickly King became a dressing room influence, with one source close to the team comparing her to a young Sam Warburton, who was similarly given the Wales men's captaincy at a young age.
And King believes with age on their side, this Ireland team can eventually close the considerable gap to world champions England.
"I'm so lucky that I've been captained by such great role models who will be there for me," she added.
"I have a great leadership team around me and I've learned so much off Sam [Monaghan] and Tricky [Edel McMahon] in the past year and a half, two years that I've been captained by them.
"They're so inspiring and if I can be half the captain that they were, I'll be delighted. I just want to inspire the girls every day. It's the start of a new cycle.
"I might only be 22 but by the next World Cup I'll be 26.
"We're a tight group and we want to keep that tight group and we want to build relationships and everything over these next four years, and go to that next World Cup and win it. I don't see why not.
"We have so much belief in this team, and if we can all buy into that one common goal and I can get the girls to buy into me and follow me and inspire them when we're out on pitch, even when we're in the gym, any little thing.
"I have the best interest of this team and I'll always put my best foot forward for this team."
While King eventually returned ahead of schedule from her knee injury, which she suffered against England last year, the unusual nature of the injury left her career in doubt during the early stages of her rehab.
"It sounds really gruesome", she explained as she went into the details of the damage to her knee cartilage, which now contains collagen from a pig.
And that retirement scare has her more motivated than ever to get the most out of her career.
"I was in a knee brace, locked straight for 12 weeks which was miserable as you can probably imagine," she said.
"Then it was a bit uncertain, I couldn't get range back in my knee for a long time and the surgeons weren't really sure and they'd heard of other people that had similar [surgery] and didn't make it back, and I was hearing just different things and no one really fully knew what the story was"
"There was a time I didn't know if I'd ever play again so it's given me a really new perspective on life and made me really grateful to be here, to be able to train even.
"There was a while that I thought I was going to have to become a boxer or a rower or something like that, so it's changed my mindset completely and every single time I get the opportunity to run around or get ball in hand I'll put 100% into it because you never know when the last time you're going to wear the jersey is, you never know when the last time you're going to get to training, so why not put 110% in every single time you step out there.
"I just want to embody that when I play, embody that every time I'm on the pitch and try to bring that to the girls and raise the standards every single time we train."
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