Rugby

Coach Scott Bemand feels ‘now is the right time’ for Moloney to return to the Ireland squad

The 31-time capped Irish hooker has not played for Ireland for nearly three years

Cliodhna Moloney at Ireland women's rugby squad training at Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown, Dublin, on Monday. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

Johnny Watterson
Wed Apr 10 2024 - 01:00

The elephant in the room was why now? Why after 2½ years was Cliodhna Moloney back in the Irish squad and expected to be one of Ireland’s match-day hookers against Wales in Cork this weekend.

The Exeter Chiefs player has not featured for Ireland since November 2021 following a women’s rugby revolt, with Moloney raising her head by posting critical comments about the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) on social media.

Moloney accused Anthony Eddy of “slurry spreading” in response to comments made by the former IRFU women’s director of rugby. She was subsequently an eye-catching omission from the 2022 Six Nations teams, and has not been back in an Irish squad until this week.

The 31-time capped 30-year-old was invited back by coach Scott Bemand, and is now a possibility for Ireland’s third Six Nations match on Saturday following back-to-back defeats to France and Italy.

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“We’d been in comms for a reasonable while,” said Bemand. “We’d been tracking how she’s playing. We got to a point where we feel it’s the right time. We’re carrying two hookers within the 36. Look, obviously it’s going to be very dominant in the headlines this week. The conversation was very informal. I knew her, known her for a good while, in a previous role came across her quite a lot.

“We had some ongoing informal conversations. I’ve been in England, I’ve bumped into her, crossed paths. She knew that she was working hard around performance and there’d be a point that we may look at her or may not. It’s an opportunity that’s presented itself. We base everything around our on-pitch performances. We feel this is the right time, we feel she can add to it, so she was pretty pleased to say ‘yeah I’d be up for coming in’.”

Moloney was not part of the Irish squad that travelled to Dubai last October and competed in three rounds of the inaugural WXV3 tournament, where the team earned wins over Kazakhstan, Colombia and Spain to win the event. But Bemand, who was appointed last July as head coach, reiterated that the selection of Moloney was all to do with timing.

The new chapter harks back to March of 2022, when the IRFU formally accepted all 30 recommendations of an independent review following the failure to qualify for the women’s Rugby World Cup in 2021. The IRFU also issued a formal apology for “the lack of any confidence, or perceived lack of interest, that the IRFU have had in the women’s game”.

In response the players’ representative group, which included Ciara Griffin, Claire Molloy, Lindsay Peat and Moloney, welcomed the IRFU’s acceptance of the recommendations and their publication, adding that the announcement by the IRFU was a welcome first step on a journey towards a new era for Irish women’s rugby.

In the rebuilding process Ireland lost all five of last year’s Six Nations matches and hope Wales will be a turning point in this year’s competition.

“There’s a timing piece and I think Cliodhna . . . I had a conversation with her a good while ago,” said Bemand. “She has just knuckled down and been getting her performances sorted, putting her hand up. We just feel now is the right time. The time is right for the group, the time is right for them, and hopefully now they can . . . Some of them have already had an opportunity to put their best foot forward in the Six Nations and let’s see how Cli goes this week. If she trains hard, she trains well, adds to the group, then it’s a possibility.”

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson is a sports writer with The Irish Times

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