Moloney-MacDonald back from injury to take on Trailfinders
Published on: 16/03/2026
I want to have a successful year with Chiefs. I want us to be in a place to be in a semi-final or final. I want to play well for Ireland. I want to start.
Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald is the youngest of seven children, but she certainly does not give off baby sister vibes. Her swaggering style on the pitch and her seemingly calm demeanour off it, suggests eldest sibling mentality but with a 14-year age gap between her and her oldest sister, she is definitely the little one.
Born in a village called Kilconly in County Galway, Moloney-MacDonald grew up on a sheep farm with her three older sisters and three older brothers. One bedroom for the girls and one for the boys, little Cliodhna (pronounced Cleaner) thinks her confidence comes from growing up in a safe, rural area.
“People are generally surprised when I am the youngest, but I think it's because of the farming background. As children, we had a lot of independence but also responsibility. We would cycle to school on our own, come home on our own, go to the garden, start getting vegetables for dinner, putting dinner on, or we'd have to go down to the farm and check on the sheep or the lambs.”
Away from her idyllic-sounding childhood at home, Moloney-MacDonald was a keen Gaelic football player. Like her team-mate Edel ‘Tricky’ McMahon, Moloney-MacDonald’s entry into rugby wasn’t until much later. She played for a boys-only club until she was teenager before moving to a women’s team with her sister Meadhbh.
“People were interested in us playing a bit more, so we went to another club called Corofin and they were quite successful. It was 15 to 20 minutes away in a car, and there wasn't always someone to drive us, but neighbours and friends were very good and often drove us or came and picked us up.”
Moloney-MacDonald also played camogie, which she describes as a mix of hockey and lacrosse.
“Apparently, it’s the fastest field sport in the world, because the ball moves so quickly and the pitch is quite big. I did really enjoy it and then went I went to university where I was on scholarship for Gaelic football, so that was my primary sport.”
Moloney-MacDonald played in New York for a summer for Na Fianna in the Bronx. Wherever you find Irish communities, you will find Gaelic football, but even with teams in Dubai and Australia, there isn’t an opportunity to play at international level. It remains a non-professional game.
In her final year of a business & sport four-year degree, a friend suggested she give rugby a go. She must have made an impact as after just one training session with Railway Union RFC in Dublin, Moloney-MacDonald ended up starting at inside centre the following weekend.
“It was great fun, but I hadn't got a clue of the laws. They pulled me aside after training to teach me how to tackle someone. I was probably ahead of the ball most of the time!
“I do miss Gaelic football, but it's a very different game to rugby. There’s a lot more running fitness needed and less physicality. One of the reasons I came to rugby was because I was a bit bigger and stronger than a lot of the girls I was playing against. It’s supposed to be a non-contact sport, but invariably, when someone bigger goes into a contact with someone that's a bit smaller, you just end up getting a yellow card.”
Moloney-MacDonald moved to Dublin after she graduated to play rugby and to start a career in banking. Her coaches believed she was destined for international honours.
“Railway Union were very invested in me as an athlete. A lot of people involved in the setting up of that club and bringing of me to Dublin were just very encouraging. They said: ‘We think you have a career and you can play for Ireland,’ …and I just thought they were crazy.”
Moloney-MacDonald worked in Dublin for four years, moving from centre to flanker to hooker along the way.
“I had to learn how to scrummage and throw. That was probably very difficult for everybody around me. I was a hooker who didn’t fully understand the basics. I had loads of intent and aggression and might sometimes throw a great ball but also might throw it straight to the ground because I was like learning it all at once.”
Despite this shaky start, Moloney-MacDonald was called up to Ireland just 18 months after she started playing the game. Her first camp saw her rub shoulders with the Ireland team that had just won the Grand Slam in 2015.
“They had been an established group players for a long time. They were very experienced and very serious. They were the team that had knocked the Black Ferns out of the 2014 World Cup. They were all kind of scary…and I'm this idiot, still not really understanding how different rugby is to football.”
Somewhere along the line, Moloney-MacDonald got with the programme! After being late to a few team meetings and finally understanding the structured nature of the sport, she settled into a rhythm that took her to her debut in 2015 and then the 2017 Rugby World Cup and then over the water to Wasps.
“After that 2017 World Cup, I think a lot of us were quite disappointed and wanted a greater level of competition day to day, so I moved over to Wasps and spent four years there.”
The demise of Wasps was a sad day for rugby and their players. Their loss was Chiefs’ gain with Edel McMahon, Sammy Wong and Lucy Nye having all played for Wasps, as did Claudia MacDonald now Claudia Moloney-MacDonald. Chiefs Women’s first married couple made the move to Exeter before Wasps folded. The couple had gone through the pandemic in the capital city so were keen to find space in its aftermath.
“COVID in London was hard for everybody. Having any type of an original idea or space just didn't really exist. I really looked forward to moving down here when we did. I think Cornwall and Devon are a lot like Ireland. People have just really strong community values. Everyone wants to support local teams, and it's something I've actually said to Claud, you don't see county flags anywhere else in England. That’s a bit more like Irish people who are very proud of where they're from and their county.”
Devon also offers the couple the outdoorsy environment they both enjoy. A dip in the sea or a trek on Dartmoor are an idea way to spend free time for the M-Ms (below).
But while they were settling into life in the South West and Exeter Chiefs, a blot on the landscape was on its way. When Ireland failed to make the Rugby World Cup in 2021, Moloney-MacDonald took a stand via Twitter and signed a letter, along with 60 other players, which went to the Minster of Sport, Sport Ireland and the team’s main sponsors calling out the lack of investment in the women’s programme. Moloney-MacDonald was immediately frozen out of the national team.
“We just wanted understanding of the investment in both the sevens and 15s programmes. We weren't asking for anything crazy; we were asking them to match our competitors. We just wanted to have a high-performance programme that would function.
“I'm glad all that is done. I wouldn't want to live through that again, but I don’t regret it.”
A change of the guard in the leadership team saw Moloney-MacDonald brought in from the cold in an environment that had a clear plan, but also a lot of new, younger players.
“It was strange when I went back in. There were so many younger girls in, which was brilliant. I'd never met them before because I'd left. In 2018, they were still in secondary school or something!
“I just tried to keep myself in the team, to be honest, to try and fight for a starting shirt. I'm not that old…I'm only 32, but I think you feel older sooner because everybody is younger around you!”
This opened the door for Moloney-MacDonald to make a bid for a place in last year’s Rugby World Cup. She was the only player to be in her second World Cup for Ireland after the team qualified by beating Scotland in the Six Nations. Irish hearts were broken, however, when their team lost in the quarter-final to France at Sandy Park. But with a young squad at their disposal, there is room for growth and improvement coming into this year’s Six Nations and beyond. A third World Cup for Moloney-MacDonald…or maybe Lions beforehand for both the M-Ms?
“I'm taking this year as it comes first. I want to have a successful year with Chiefs. I want us to be in a place to be in a semi-final or final. I want to play well for Ireland. I want to start. And, ultimately, I would love to put my hand up for a Lions’ jersey. Yes. I don't know how that looks. I don’t know how political that will or won't be, but I'm willing to fight for that if it's an option for me.”
Find more interviews like these in our free digital match-day programmes. For the rest of Saturday’s programme, click here.
Written By:
Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club
