Cliodhna Moloney: 'Twickenham thumping will never happen again'

England visit Cork for a Six Nations showdown this weekend. 

FUEL UP: Neve Jones with Cliodhna Moloney and Stacey Flood. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Know thine enemy, said Sun Tzu. Not a problem for Cliodhna Moloney this week, although it’s hard to see her using that terminology when speaking about Claudine MacDonald or an England side that provides the opposition in Cork this weekend.

Moloney is engaged to MacDonald, a winger in the England squad who started their Six Nations opener against Italy but hasn’t made the 23 for this meeting at Musgrave Park. They are due to be married next month.

The pair met in 2018 when both played for Wasps. Now they play together for Exeter Chiefs. Moloney was in New Zealand three years ago to watch MacDonald play in the World Cup final. MacDonald was in Parma two weeks ago when Moloney and Ireland beat Italy.

If that’s an elevated level of familiarity then seven years playing in England’s top tier gives Exeter’s Galway-born hooker a deep insight into the players who will inhabit the away dressing-room and a team that is in a league of its own in this Championship.

Let’s mark the stats one more time.

England have won 31 consecutive games in this tournament and 52 of their last 53 games anywhere. The one loss was the crushing defeat to the Black Ferns in that World Cup final, and they will look to atone for that in a home World Cup this summer.

John Mitchell’s team hit Ireland for 14 tries and 88 points when the sides met last year. Moloney sees these players every week. She knows how good they are, and she knows they are only human. But that insight isn’t something she feels needs sharing.

“No, I don’t think you need to tell them,” she said of an Ireland squad that is mostly made up of domestically-based players. “It’s more of a feeling of knowing that we’ve done the work, experiencing how training feels when we’re under really high-pressure scenarios.

“It’s that that gives them confidence more than me telling them this or that about whatever player I might know. They have confidence from the pressure we’ve experienced here. I think they’re just really excited to be honest with you. There’s no fear in there.” 

Her own Test career started against the same opposition but in a very different time.

That was in November of 2015 and Ireland lost just 8-3 in their first ever November international. It was only nine months after they had accounted for England 8-3 at Ashbourne Rugby Club and little over a year since finishing fourth at the World Cup.

It’s been all defeats against the ‘Old Enemy’ since. Defeats and a despairing spiral in fortunes for the women’s team while Moloney, who was very public in her criticism of a former IRFU head of women’s rugby at one point, didn’t receive a call-up for three years at one point.

The upturn in the last 12 months has been as uplifting and it has sudden and so much so that the former Galway footballer could state baldly that the embarrassing day and result in London last week will “never happen again”.

Their bullishness about their chances of claiming a first win against England since 2015 has been evident this week. That’s very unlikely to happen but beating the world champion Kiwis and the USA last autumn entitles them to dare and to dream.

An opening Six Nations loss to France was as much about their own errors on the day in Belfast and they went to Parma after that and put 54 points on an Italy team that they couldn’t beat at home in 2024.

England are using this Six Nations to build game time into a wider body of players but they have shown Ireland due respect here by naming a very strong 15 and 23 and Bemand’s project is showing similar traits.

Ireland have now landed on a fairly settled squad. Having the sevens cohort available full-time for the tournament is a huge help in that and there are a growing number of areas where there are genuinely a couple of options for the one shirt.

Moloney’s ‘battle’ with Neve Jones at hooker is typical of this.

Jones started against France and does so again this time with Moloney getting the nod away to the Italians and providing back-up in Belfast and now in Cork. That they both bring different traits to the table is another plus.

“It’s a Six Nations before the World Cup, it's hugely exciting,” said Moloney. “Everyone wants to keep their jersey, move up their jersey if they can.

“The main goal is to keep improving week-on-week. This week is not really about starting or finishing, it about making a statement against England, whatever that looks like on the day. That’s the main focus for us.”