FLANKERS Manon Johnes and Alisha Butchers will make their first Wales starts of the season in the Women's Six Nations clash in Ireland.

The duo come into the XV for Sunday's fixture at Donnybrook (kick-off 1pm) after coming off the bench when Wales were edged out 19-15 by Italy at Cardiff Arms Park last weekend.

Johnes missed the autumn series through injury while Butchers spent the autumn playing sevens for Adelaide University along with teammates Jasmine Joyce and Hannah Jones – one of Wales' try scorers against the Azzurre.

Coach Chris Horsman said: "We are extremely lucky with the riches we have available to us in the back row.

"It's a hotly contested area and it's a case of giving these players a chance to shine and provide the right balance in this match.

"Beth (Lewis) and Alex (Callender) will also play a key part as Manon and Alisha did from the bench last Sunday."

Italy, who finished second in last year's tournament, sneaked the success at the Arms Park but Wales aren't hitting the panic button.

"We are comfortable with where we are as a group," said Horsman. "We showed how dangerous we can be in the first-half against Italy, our scrum was excellent against a bigger Italian team and defensively we were very good but we need to manage our possession better and be more clinical with ball in hand.

"The girls should be confident going into the weekend. We did well to come back into the game and be with a shout of sneaking the win and we learned a lot from the game.

"All Round One games were extremely tight which shows how competitive the Six Nations is this year. It's all about how you perform on the day which is what we've been working on."

Wales Women: Kayleigh Powell; Jasmine Joyce, Hannah Jones, Kerin Lake, Lisa Neumann; Robyn Wilkins, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Kelsey Jones, Cerys Hale, Natalia John, Gwen Crabb, Alisha Butchers, Manon Johnes, Siwan Lillicrap (captain).

Replacements: Molly Kelly, Cara Hope, Ruth Lewis, Georgia Evans, Bethan Lewis, Alex Callender, Ffion Lewis, Paige Randall