Former Ireland centre Grace Davitt has hailed the debut displays of teenage fly-half Dannah O’Brien in the drawn Test series in Japan.

Fly-half had been a problem position for Ireland in recent years, with numerous players tried in the role.

“Her game management and kicking game were both really good,” said Davitt.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Sportsound Extra Time, she added: “Stacey Flood stepped into that position during the Six Nations but had to go with the sevens squad who are preparing for the World Cup in South Africa in 10 days’ time.

“Dannah has an unbelievable left boot and produced some amazing kicks into touch which gave Ireland a really good platform. She’s a really good distributor as well.”

O’Brien, 18, was among four backs who earned their first caps as they started for Greg McWilliams’ side in the opening Test with Meabh Deely, Natasja Behan and Aoife Dalton also handed debuts.

“The pack were the old heads, but in that backline bar [scrum-half] Ailsa Hughes and Enya Breen at centre, the rest were new caps and that’s big.

“The likes of Aoife Dalton slotting into 13, a really hard position to play and to defend in – and scoring tries.

“That’s what was so amazing was for all of them to stand up and back themselves and you can see what Greg McWilliams and Niamh Briggs and the whole management team are building within the squad.”

Davitt was also pleased to see Ulster second row Taryn Schutzler making her debut on the tour.

“She has gone from strength to strength. She was playing in Ulster and then went to Loughborough Lightning in the Premiership and is back now [at Ulster] and getting her just reward with an Irish cap.”

‘IRFU getting more players into camp’

After all the turmoil in Irish women’s rugby which followed the country’s surprise failure to qualify for this year’s World Cup, Davitt believes genuine progress is being made with the resources now being made available to the women’s game.

Last December, a group of past and present Irish women’s players – including Davitt – said they had lost “all confidence” in the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).

An independent report into Irish women’s rugby was later commissioned with the IRFU promising to implement the 30 recommendations and to plough an additional 1m euros (£854,000) into the women’s game – in addition to apologising for past failures.

Then director of women’s rugby Anthony Eddy stepped down from his role shortly before the unveiling of the report, with previous national 15s coach Adam Griggs also having exited as McWilliams took charge of the side.

“They are getting a lot more players into camp. They had 50 players training in camp and they are building up an underage structure,” added Davitt.

“They are having under-16 camps and there was an Under-18 Six Nations tournament this year. These girls are coming in as 16-year-olds, getting high performance training and then stepping into senior.”

Earlier this month, the IRFU announced that it would offer professional contracts to Ireland’s 15s women’s players for the first time this season after deals had previously been given to sevens players.

Davitt is hoping this will have a positive effect on the women’s game.

“How the 15s work is going to be interesting,” she said. “There are at least seven exiles at the minute that are playing in the English Premiership.

“If you rip them away and say you have to be centralised in Dublin, are they going to come and miss out on high level rugby?

“Are they going to look at that other review which still hasn’t been released about the overall structure of women’s rugby in Ireland?

“Are they going to develop the AIL or the provincial rugby so these players can play at a provincial level as well as Ireland level?

“But it is going in the right direction.”