“It's brilliant that the club commemorates those milestones”
Exeter Chiefs hooker Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald had a busy spring and summer taking her from injury to two international tournaments and a wedding in between!
The softly-spoken former Gaelic football player and coach had to sit out the end of Chiefs’ last season with a calf injury, but she battled back to fitness to play in the Six Nations, be selected for Ireland’s Rugby World Cup 2025 squad and play the tournament itself in August and September.
Moloney-MacDonald was the only player in the squad who had played in a World Cup before after Ireland missed out on the delayed 2021 tournament. A few years ago, the 32-year-old may not have thought this would have been possible having been left out of the squad after speaking her mind about the management of Ireland’s women’s team.
She said: “I wasn't sure if I'd ever play for Ireland again. I was very glad to get the call up to go back and then that team and that journey was all about re-qualifying and getting Ireland back to a World Cup and then hopefully putting myself in a position to be selected.”
Ireland’s dream of seven World Cup games came to an end at Sandy Park when France beat them in the quarter-final, but Moloney-MacDonald is still proud of the progress Ireland have made after not qualifying four years ago.
“It is a really young group, aside from a few of us, but I'm really proud of what they've done because for a long time people didn't think it was possible for Ireland to be playing at that level and I'm glad of where we are now. That group is also really hungry and there's a lot more to do, so we were bitterly disappointed about the quarter-final but still very, very proud of the fight and the performance that we put in.”
Moloney-MacDonald’s involvement in the tournament did not end at there though as she went to watch her wife Claudia’s team, the Red Roses, go on to lift the trophy.
The couple had somehow managed to squeeze in a wedding in May in between international camps. Only since the end of the World Cup, have they been able to spend any quality time together.
She added: “We like to keep things interesting! We obviously didn't have much time to see each other beforehand. I was injured, so I was back to Ireland early pre-Six Nations and then spent the whole of February to May there. Then we got married on 11 May, so I think I have to hat tip to Claud as she did the majority of the planning as regards to the wedding.
“We had a beautiful wedding over in Rhodes and both of our families were all able to make it and a couple of close friends. So that was very special. Then we had two or three weeks of time together and then straight back into World Cup prep for both of us. The last kind of week or two, we've kind of got to see each other a little bit more properly out of camp environment again since.”
Cli Moloney-MacDonald is now back on duty with Exeter Chiefs and is about to make a landmark 50th appearance for the club alongside international team-mate Nancy McGillivray.
“It's bizarre. I didn't actually realise that was happening until a couple of days ago, but it's really special and it's brilliant that the club commemorates those milestones and achievements along the way.”
Moloney-MacDonald added: “It'll be very special to do it with Nancy. I've been really impressed with how Nancy has taken her journey to Ireland. She's really embraced it and enjoyed every step along the way. I've been very proud of seeing her do that and I'm really looking forward to playing with her again on Saturday.”
Moloney-MacDonald will be in action against Bristol Bears tomorrow (KO 13:00) in the third/fourth play-off at Shaftesbury Park.
Watch the entire interview with Moloney-MacDonald, including how the newly-weds decided on the configuration of their new surname, below.