"I'm excited to see what noise we make for our game against Gloucester."

Nearly 60,000 spectators watched the Rugby World Cup at Sandy Park. Champion Red Rose Claudia Moloney-MacDonald is hoping a few thousand of these may just come back for Exeter Chiefs Women’s first home PWR game against Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday.

The flying winger is now back on home soil for the second round of the PWR after scoring the bonus-point try against Trailfinders last weekend.

“It's just been amazing to be back at home. I like being back in my own bed! A bit of normality; a bit of routine.”

Since the end of the 2024/25 PWR season, Moloney-MacDonald has played and trained through another successful Six Nations campaign, pre-World Cup camp and friendlies, and the tournament itself. She slipped in a wedding to Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald along the way too!

Sadly, her busy international season did not bring her to Sandy Park to play though, but she only heard good things from those players who did.

“Obviously, we didn't get to play here, but I know Cli and lots of our other players did get to play through the World Cup and they only had the most amazing compliments for the vibe and the atmosphere that was created here. So hopefully we can recreate at least a feeling of that for our first Prem game back.”

Away from training and playing, Moloney-MacDonald’s duties during the World Cup were two-fold: to support her Red Roses team-mates on match-days and then to support her new wife on match-days. It meant she attended plenty of matches throughout the tournament and experienced multiple grounds.

She added: “There was a couple of times when I was in the crowd and was looking around and every face was fixed on the pitch and so engaged with what was happening. I think that's credit to the product that's been put out on the pitch by the players.

“I think it (the crowd for women’s rugby) does have a slightly different energy to it. It's really family-friendly. It's a young crowd. I think it's an exciting crowd. I'm excited to see what noise we make for our game against Gloucester.”

More than 120 Rugby World Cup players can be found throughout the PWR’s nine clubs. Exeter Chiefs has 12, including five finalists. And new players are seemingly being lured to the league all the time with Black Ferns Layla Sae and Liana Mikaele Tu’u added to Harlequins ranks just days before the competition began again.

Last week’s opponents, Trailfinders had bolstered their squad with the likes of Red Rose Meg Jones and New Zealand’s Georgia Ponsonby and Alana Borland amid the plethora of signings they made in the summer. Chiefs, meanwhile, bagged Black Fern Amy Rule and Italy’s Francesca Granzotto. Across the PWR, there are plenty of World Cup stars available to watch in action.

Moloney-MacDonald said: “If you've tuned in for the first time and you've watched the World Cup and you've spotted a few players that you like, and whether that's because of the way they play, it's the country they play for, or it's their backstory, then you can go and watch those players in the PWR, which I think is really exciting.

“I think the beauty of having the World Cup in England was that we have rolled straight into the PWR. You don't miss out on anything. You just turn up to your local stadium, and you get to see Maud Muir, the rampaging prop that you love to watch, or Sophie de Goede from Canada or whoever it is. There are so many amazing players playing in the PWR that you can go and watch week in, week out.”

Moloney-MacDonald, though, is quick to point out that there are plenty of other players worth watching in the league aside from the World Cup players.

“We have so many incredibly talented young players that have gone to the University of Exeter or have grown up five minutes down the road from here that have looked up to the Exeter Chiefs for their entire life and now get to walk out onto Sandy Park as an Exeter Chief themselves.

“Absolutely, we have the internationals, we have homegrown talent, but we also have this amazing cohort of young players coming through. They're the stars of the future.

“And I think that's the beauty of the game at the moment, that there's so much competition at international level, but at club level too, with so much competition for the shirts.”

Inspired by Moloney-MacDonald’s words? Watch Exeter Chiefs Women play Gloucester-Hartpury at 15:00 on Saturday at Sandy Park. Tickets are £11 for adults or £5.50 for young people aged 17 and under.

Women’s season tickets are available here. Entry to the game is free to men’s season ticket holders.

Watch the full interview with Claudia Moloney-MacDonald below.