Two years on from missing out on the chance to play a Six Nations game in her home province, Ireland's return to Belfast can't come quick enough for Brittany Hogan.
The number 8 featured in Ireland's opening three games of the 2022 championship under Greg McWilliams, starting the first two games against Wales and France, before featuring off the bench in the Round 3 win over Italy in Cork.
Hogan missed out on the final two matches of that tournament though, one of seven players who were pulled from the XVs squad to return to duty with Ireland's Sevens team.
After continuing with Ireland Sevens through 2022 and the World Cup in Cape Town, Hogan has been ever-present in the XV's programme since the start of last year. Saturday's Guinness Women's Six Nations finale against Scotland will be her 13th consecutive appearance across the last two seasons.
More significant for the Down native this weekend, will be the chance to represent her country at the home of Ulster rugby.
"I'm really, really excited," Hogan (below) said about the prospect of playing at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday.
"I actually had the opportunity to play in the Celtic Challenge in Kingspan with the Wolfhounds so it's just always nice to have that home buzz. I’m well acquainted with the pitch. I’m well acquainted with the surroundings and where the nearest coffee shop is. So it's nice to know my surroundings."
As of Thursday, 6,600 tickets have been sold for Saturday's final game of the championship in Belfast, and Hogan laughs that she's been roping in everyone she knows to get to Ravenhill in the hope of breaking Ireland's record attendance of 6605, which was set at the RDS against Italy in Round 2.
"That’s my home, so it's really nice. I’ll be able to have a lot of my family come up as well because I’ve got a lot of young cousins who can’t do that (away) travel, so it's really nice that I’ll hopefully have a lot of family support as well.
"I said to my family, 'I'm playing an international game in Belfast in the Kingspan, if you don’t come I’m going to be a little bit annoyed,' so hoping that a good majority of them will.
"Hopefully this year we can put a good push in behind it and maybe break the RDS record, looking to Ulster to see if they can come behind us."
Hogan, who plays her club rugby with Old Belvedere, is now one of the more experienced players in this young Irish side, with just five of this this weekend's starting team having more than her 22 caps.
The back row has emerged as a key player for Bemand, starting every game since the Englishman took charge, and has been particularly influential in defence, with only Neve Jones making more than her 52 tackles for Ireland in this championship.
On Saturday, Ireland know they could finish as high as third place in the table depending on results elsewhere, which would secure early World Cup qualification, as well as a place in the WXV top tier in the autumn.
But Hogan says if they don't hit that mark on Saturday, they'll back themselves to learn and come back stronger.
"It's huge but that was our goal coming into the campaign, third place so we can directly qualify. If we have to go a different route, we have to go a different route.
"We're not putting that pressure on ourselves for the weekend. It's just looking to go and perform against Scotland If it happens, it would be great, it would mean loads.
"I suppose if you just look at the negatives of a game, you wouldn't be playing it, to be honest. We all play because we love the green jersey and we all play because we love rugby.
"We have to make sure that we take the positives out of every game and if you didn't have them, then it just wouldn’t be a nice place to be," she added.
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