Two days out from the first of the two warm-up games before the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald is reflective. With 43 Ireland caps to date, she is one of the players lining out against Scotland on Saturday in Cork who was involved in the home World Cup back in 2017.
“I think a lot has changed,” says Moloney-MacDonald. “The tournament structure has changed hugely. The numbers that go have changed hugely. Women’s rugby has advanced a lot. So while I might have experience – and people will be asking me questions anyway – that’s not World Cup relevant.
“I’ve been around a long time, I do know a lot of players from other countries and how they play. I’ve experienced playing against a lot of other countries, even at a club level, like playing over in England [with Exeter Chiefs], I would experience playing against a lot of these teams and players from these teams.”
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“[The 2017 World Cup] was a huge occasion, and getting to play in front of all your family and friends, it was amazing. That’s probably something that will remain the same. We’re as close as we could be to a home World Cup so the support element will hopefully be huge.”
Saturday’s game at Musgrave Park and the following Saturday’s encounter with Canada at Ravenhill have been organised to give fans a chance to see off the team in style before they set up base in England.
“People can fly over from Shannon, Dublin and wherever, and there’s lots of games all over the country,” says Moloney-MacDonald. “We want to give our team a great send-off and prepare ourselves as best as possible. But we also want to get people behind us a little bit. So performance is the main goal, but we do want to feel a little bit of support and love from the Irish people before we head off.”
Managing those small things will be critical for this weekend’s first warm-up game against Scotland, who beat Ireland in the final Six Nations game earlier this year.
“We were disappointed at the end of the Six Nations to lose that game, it’s not one that we should have lost, we feel,” admits Moloney-MacDonald. “We’ll want to put those things right, just for our performance, like the things we got wrong that day. We want to tidy up on them. But it is more about performing as a team in the way that we want to play and the way that we want to approach this World Cup.”
Every game and every opponent is different, but the guiding goal is the same: getting to Twickenham for the World Cup final.
“We know what we need to do at each stage but we’re not overestimating; this week is about Scotland, next week about Canada. Then it’s selection and getting there and then it’s each game at a time, and the pool games are each going to be very challenging in their own way.”
Having the World Cup so close, and hopefully performing well, could help achieve another of the team’s goals: to fuel the growth of the game in Ireland.
“We do have our goals individually and for each game, and obviously we need to get there first. But obviously the overall plan and strategy and everything is about growing the game in Ireland and that’s always in the back of our mind.
“When we travel over to England, the lucky ones that get to go, we want to bring the sport with us, but we also want to leave a legacy from this World Cup in terms of our performance and how we are supported by the Irish people.”
IRELAND (v Scotland, World Cup warm-up, Saturday, Musgrave Park, 2pm): Méabh Deely (Blackrock College/Connacht); Béibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College/Connacht), Nancy McGillivray (Exeter Chiefs)*, Eve Higgins (Railway Union/Leinster), Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union/Munster); Dannah O’Brien (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Molly Scuffil-McCabe (Manawatū/Leinster); Siobhán McCarthy (Railway Union/Munster), Clíodhna Moloney-MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs), Sadhbh McGrath (Cooke/Ulster); Eimear Corri-Fallon (Blackrock College/Leinster), Sam Monaghan (Gloucester Hartpury/IQ Rugby) (capt); Grace Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby), Ivana Kiripati (Creggs/Connacht)*, Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster).
Replacements: Neve Jones (Gloucester Hartpury), Niamh O’Dowd (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere/Ulster), Deirbhile Nic a Bháird (Old Belvedere/Munster), Ailish Quinn (Galwegians/Connacht)*, Emily Lane (Blackrock College), Enya Breen (Blackrock College/Munster).
*denotes uncapped player
SCOTLAND: Chloe Rollie; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Lucia Scott; Hannah Ramsay, Caity Mattinson; Anne Young, Lana Skeldon, Elliann Clarke; Emma Wassell, Rachel Malcolm (capt); Rachel McLachlan, Alex Stewart, Evie Gallagher.
Replacements: Elis Martin, Leah Bartlett, Molly Poolman, Adelle Ferrie, Eva Donaldson, Leia Brebner-Holden, Beth Blacklock, Coreen Grant.
