All You Need To Know: Ireland v France

Ireland play our fifth FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier on Thursday. The Group E fixture against France takes place in Chalon Sur Saône, just outside Lyon  at 18:15 Irish time, with live coverage on the TG4 Player, as well as the FIBA YouTube Channel.

COMPETITION FORMAT

Ireland have been contesting Group E in FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualifying, with group games taking place across three windows, this week, November 2024 and February 2024. James Weldon’s side come into the contest against the third ranked side in the world in fourth place in the group, with one remaining fixture following today's clash with the French. Latvia will make the trip to Dublin on Sunday. 

The three group winners along with the best second-placed team will advance to FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 , which will be played in this summer. 

Looking back on the current campaign, Head Coach James Weldon said: 

This current campaign has been challenging as some games became geo-politically charged but I am so impressed at how our squad focused on the sporting task in hand namely to try qualify. I am also thankful for the support of Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan; the Elite Performance Committee (EPC) as well as all the BIHQ and Arena staff throughout this campaign.

The summer games brought a win over the Netherlands and a narrow loss to Denmark which helped us move quickly up the FIBA ranking. Our last game against France was memorable and even though there was only a basket between the teams coming up to half time that intensity necessary at the top level was hard to maintain.

WATCH

The game will be broadcast live on the TG4 Player here with tip-off at 1815.

SQUAD NEWS

Ireland captain Edel Thornton returns to the squad following a year out through injury, while there are also returns for Claire Melia, Michelle Clarke, Lauryn Homan and Sorcha Tiernan to the final 12 woman roster for the games against France and Latvia. 

OPPOSITION VIEW

France come into the game as the current Olympic Games silver medallists and unbeaten in the group, with a points difference of +147 through their four games in qualifying. Our last meeting against them came last year in Dublin, in which the French ran out 100-48 winners.

They will be without their leading scorer in the competition Fenerbache's Gabby Williams, who misses out due to club commitments. Their most recent game was against Latvia in Riga, which they took comfortably 82-51.

IRELAND WOMEN’S TEAM ROSTER

Abigail Rafferty (Oakland Wolves, England), Áine O’Connor, Hazel Finn, Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Amy Dooley (Midlands Park Portlaoise Panthers), Bridget Herlihy (Unicaja Baloncesto, Spain), Lauryn Homan, Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell), Claire Melia (University of Ferrol, Spain), Kate Hickey, Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats), Michelle Clarke (Killester).