Irish rugby ace Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald concerned about new ball for women's game
CONSISTENT: Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald doesn't believe a lighter rugby ball for the women's game would have a long-term benefit. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane
Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald admits the new smaller ball could create more problems than solutions for women’s rugby as Ireland prepare to use it for the first time in a Test match against the USA on Sunday.
World Rugby is trialling a size 4.5 ball during the WXV Global Series, around 3% smaller than the size five used in the men’s game while retaining the same weight.
For Ireland hooker Moloney-MacDonald, a big concern is that players have had so little time to adapt to the new ball, which has not been used in club and provincial match environments.
However, she was fortunate that her wife, Claudia, had brought some of them home from England camp for practice ahead of the series, so while most of the Ireland squad only got to work with the new balls for the first time in mid to late August, she had a few weeks’ head start.
“It’s not in the domestic game, so when you come in you’ve got quite a short window to get used to it,” the Galwegian said.
“I’m not sure about the ball quality. I know the balls that we play with for Six Nations and other competitions, there’s quite a lot of research and technology put into their development because they’re the same as the ones that are used for Men’s Six Nations, etc. They’re very high quality.”
The implications are particularly significant for hookers, and Moloney-MacDonald believes the ball behaves differently in difficult conditions, with the flight potentially affected.
“They are slightly lighter, so I guess in windy or rainy conditions, the flight doesn’t hold as true,” the 33-year-old explained. “A lot of people have mentioned that your technique has to be quite on point, otherwise it will be difficult to throw it in.
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“It’s confusing for me because World Rugby seem to want to speed up that line-out process and, if there’s no compete in the area, they’ll let the not-straights go. But this ball is actually going to make that probably more difficult.
“I think maybe 12 years ago it would have been a good idea, but for me it’s not. The game has gone beyond that now.”
Moloney-MacDonald has also heard concerns from kickers and believes the ball can “die off” at the end of passes, while its behaviour in the wind may present additional challenges. “I don’t think the benefit is going to outweigh the problematic changes,” she stated.
There is also the question of cost. If the ball was to become standard in women’s rugby, Moloney-MacDonald fears domestic clubs could face additional expense when equipment is often shared between men’s and women’s sections.
“I think it might potentially make women’s rugby more inaccessible, which is probably not what we want,” she said.
World Rugby’s trial will ultimately be assessed through player feedback, performance data and match analysis, and Moloney-MacDonald hopes those involved will listen to the evidence.
“I hope they take the feedback on board,” she said. “I know they’ve trialled it at U20s, and if the feedback is listened to, then that’s how democracy works, hopefully. That it will be based on the stats and the performances, but also player feedback, so that’s all we can really hope for.
It is an added headache for Moloney-MacDonald ahead of what she predicts will be a physical test in Tallaght. The Americans have recently changed their coaching staff, with former Ireland coach Jack Hanratty now in charge, while Lou Meadows has also joined the set-up from England.
“They’re quite physical,” Moloney-MacDonald said. “They’ve got some Sevens background in a lot of their back line as well. So a multi-threat team with offloading skills and a variety of kicking styles. Definitely, for forwards, it’s the physical challenge that we’re prepping for most.”
The game won’t be broadcast live on TV, but will be shown on TG4’s YouTube channel. “It’s happening everywhere, even the Red Roses were only on streamable services, not on mainstream TV (last weekend),” she noted.
"I guess because it’s an untraditional window for rugby and it’s probably a new format style of a World Rugby competition, but maybe going forward we would like to hope that it would be on mainstream TV. That’s always the best-case scenario.”
Beyond Sunday’s game, the first of five in this Test window for Ireland, Moloney-MacDonald is keen to see the Global Series develop into a competition with a clearer prize at stake.
She recalls the experience of WXV1 in Vancouver two years ago, where Ireland finished second and defeated New Zealand. “It would have been nice if there was a format that you could be eligible to win,” the Exeter Chiefs star remarked.
“But our goal within this window is to win all those five games. That doesn’t really change based on whether there’s a trophy available or not.”
Moloney-MacDonald also welcomes the possibility of Irish teams eventually entering Premiership Women’s Rugby. The IRFU has applied for entry for two clubs, with the earliest possible season now understood to be 2028-29.
“It would be great,” she said. “The PWR is full of a whole variety of internationals that pose lots of different threats and opportunities. So any chance that they get throughout the year to play against those is brilliant.
“It would definitely be a step-up just in terms of the amount of games that they’ll be playing.”
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