Monaghan insists Moloney played role in her rise to international status
Ben Edel Delany Brady, Crew: Moloney Inpho And Linda Djougang, Pic: Mcmahon, Irish Cliodhna Sam Lauren Monaghan,
Co-captain Sam Monaghan has credited returning international Cliodhna Moloney as the reason she is part of the current Ireland camp as she prepares to lead her side into Saturday’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations clash with Wales.
Moloney, 30, is set to make her Ireland comeback off the bench at Cork’s Virgin Media Park, ending the Galway-born, Exeter Chiefs hooker’s more than two-year exile following social media criticism of the IRFU that followed her 31st and most recent appearance in November 2021.
Both lock Monaghan, and her co-captain, Moloney’s Exeter team-mate Edel “Tricky” McMahon, were part of the set-up she left behind and have been delighted by her return this week as an injury replacement for Sarah Delaney.
“Personally I am delighted for Cliodhna,” Monaghan said. “I’ve played with her at Wasps. She is probably part of the reason I’m in this set-up.
“I learned so much from her experience. She’s great to play with, not so great to play against. But she’s brilliant. The experience she’ll bring into this squad is class. She’s got this dog-like behaviour which you need on the pitch. Yeah, it’s great to have her in. It’s been a great camp in the last couple of days.”
Expanding on Moloney’s role in her rugby journey to Ireland recognition, Monaghan, 30, said: “I started playing rugby down in Brighton and I was very GAA, greenhorn, coming into the set-up. I actually didn’t know a lot of laws. She took me under her wing. There was Ciara Cooney, Claire Molloy, Tricky, all of those Irish girls were there.
“They saw something in me that I probably didn’t see in myself and just directed me in the right way.
"Just in terms of line-out, she’s a great line-out operator. Helped me, even though she doesn’t jump or lift, to do extra reps after sessions. Just looked after me and made sure I was going in the right direction.”
Monaghan said news of Moloney’s return to the fold had energised the squad.
“We were told on Friday as a group and the squad’s reaction was excited. It’s great to have more depth in the squad, because that is what we’ve lacked before, that competitive edge in training. Training against and with, and that experience. We don’t have an abundance of experience in this team and that can be invaluable. There’s an excited aura amongst the group. Which is great, especially going into this week.”
Without Moloney, Monaghan has seen plenty over the opening two rounds to suggest the pieces are falling into place for a first Six Nations victory since April 2022.
“Yes, I have. France was a big defensive game. We fired a lot of shots. We knew going away to France having that big crowd over there. It’s not an easy place to go and play. But we fronted up defensively. I thought our attack improved a lot against Italy. Our last execution lets us down (dropped ball), especially in their 22. We’d opportunities to score that we missed.
"But from both of the games I’ve seen massive improvement so…even in training last week the training we put in and built off in the Italy game…we did a lot of maul defence work… in our attacking zone as well getting in with some carries and scoring tries."
She added: “That’s our goal, to beat Wales… I think we are all quite hungry. We were starved of the game last week (a down week) and it’s hard…you play two games and you’re on a bit of a mountain and then you have a week off and go ‘oh’.
“So, I think we are dying to get back out there and no better place than Cork. We’d two of our home games there last year so we are delighted to get going.
"There is always a great crowd down there looking to hopefully break another record like we did in the RDS because the crowd has always been amazing down there.”