Irvine gets World Cup call-up

The 26-year-old, who teaches at Larne Grammar, captained her country in the inaugural Nations Cup competition there in September 2007 and was a key member of the squad which lifted the trophy at the 2009 event.

That was Northern Ireland’s first ever international trophy and the experience in Singapore should prove valuable for a squad featuring only two survivors from the last World Cup appearance by the girls in green.

Failure to qualify for the tournament in New Zealand four years ago means Northern Ireland last lined out in a World Cup in Jamaica 2003, before Irvine’s international career began.

A nucleus of the current group were, however, part of the Northern Ireland team which finished a superb sixth at the Under-21 World Championships in Florida and confidence is high after jumping from 19th to 12th in the world rankings over the past 18 months.

Irvine is one of four players from Belfast club Graduates, who recently won the Northern Ireland senior cup competition, and coincidentally there are also four each from new premier league champions Belfast Ladies and last year’s double winners Larkfield of Lisburn.

Since being agonisingly pipped for second spot at the European Championships in April, Northern Ireland have thrashed the Republic of Ireland 82-11 in a warm-up match.