Claudia Moloney-MacDonald

Claudia Moloney-MacDonald became a Rugby World Cup champion at her second time of asking when the tournament was hosted in her home country, but it could have been such a different story having suffered two serious neck injuries in her career.

She was the big-name signing ahead of the 2022/23 Allianz Premier 15s season, when she joined Chiefs from league rivals Wasps Women.

Since first picking up a ball aged 19 with Sutton & Epsom RFC, Moloney-MacDonald enjoyed a meteoric rise up through the rugby ranks. She captained Durham University in 2017/18, joining Premier 15s side Darlington Mowden Park Sharks to make her debut in September 2017. 

Having moved to Wasps FC Ladies for the 2018/19 season, she was awarded an England EPS agreement in January 2019, and she came off the bench in all three of England’s 2018 Quilter Internationals, as well as against Wales in the 2019 Women’s Six Nations. 

Moloney-MacDonald scored a try in England’s opening Super Series fixture against the USA and her impressive performances earned a full-time England contract for the 2019/20 season. 

A mainstay of the hugely successful Red Roses side, Moloney-MacDonald has not only helped her country to multiple Six Nations titles, but an unbeaten-game win streak, as well as featuring for her country as they reached the final of the Rugby World Cup in 2022. She also featured in the inaugural WXV1 international competition held in New Zealand in 2023.

Her career, though, could easily have been cut short after her head was compressed against her chest in a training session, leaving her with one acute prolapsed disc and another bulging. Moloney-MacDonald suffered another seemingly career-ending neck injury in the 2023/24 season but returned to action in December 2024 and was back playing for England in the Six Nations in March 2025.

Selected for the Red Roses' Rugby World Cup squad in July 2025, Moloney-MacDonald started against Samoa and scored the last try in a their 92-3 pool stage win.

Find out more on MacDonald's second injury comeback in this recent match-day programme interview.

“I feel stronger now though and have changed the way I see my body. I was always very lean but now I think I maybe need a bit more mass for taking on those fast props, so rather than a Mini taking on a truck, I will be more of a van!”

Moloney-MacDonald married team-mate Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald in summer 2025.

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