Although a friendly match against Irish’s England-based exiles has been arranged, Doyle’s side will effectively head into the Championship without a Test match since their final match of their last campaign – a 31-0 reverse to England.

Since then the Red Roses were able to play a further eight matches while Scotland and France both arranged autumn internationals.
And Doyle believes the lack of meaningful game time will be a major handicap for his troops heading into their clash against Wales on February 3.

He said: “The main reason it is a disadvantage is that we have not had the chance to build partnerships in the team.

“Getting the half-backs and back-row functioning as a unit is crucial. There are a number of half backs I would like to see tested but we will only have the one fixture [against the Exiles] in which to test combinations.

“It also means compared to the other countries our set-piece will be untried so we will have a lot of work to do in our training camp.

“Wales are in the same boat as us however and come the first fixture we will make sure we are ready for it.”

Doyle has presented the IRFU with a 17-point plan in revamp the women’s set up in the build up to the next World Cup, and is hopeful of arranging more friendly fixtures in the future.

But Doyle’s immediate priority is selecting his starting XV to take on the Welsh.

His 32-strong squad, which will be cut to 26 in two weeks, shows several changes from the 2011 campaign with the likes of Tania Rosser, Gill Nolan and Deirdre O’Brien all cut.

The fact Doyle was able to omit such high-profile names demonstrates the new position of strength from which he is selecting.

And Doyle has high hopes for several of the promising youngsters he has included in his squad.

He added: “There’s always talent coming through but this year there have been some very good players who have come in particularly from the junior clubs like Siobhan Fleming and Christine Arthurs from Tralee.

“This was without doubt the hardest squad, in terms of selection, I can remember picking.

“The standard is increasing each year and I am trying to combine the young talent with some more experienced heads.

“No one’s place is safe anymore and it was not an easy decision to omit Tania, Gill or Deirdre but I think Irish fans should be really excited about some of the new players who have come in like Ashleigh Baxter at Belfast Harlequins.”