FOLLOWING A SIGNIFICANT and much-discussed absence, Ireland women’s head coach Scott Bemand believes the time was right to bring Cliodhna Moloney back into the international fold.

A debutant against England back in the autumn of 2015, Moloney’s most recent appearance for Ireland was as a replacement in a home triumph over Japan on 20 November, 2021 – 11 days after she compared remarks made by the IRFU’s then Director of Women’s Rugby Anthony Eddy to “slurry spreading” in a social media post.

She was subsequently left out of Greg McWilliams’ squad for the 2022 edition of the Six Nations, although the Dubliner insisted at the time it was purely a ‘rugby decision’ on his part to not include Moloney. IRFU CEO Kevin Potts later denied in May of last year that she was being excluded for her past comments and while she wasn’t named in his initial selection, Bemand stated at the launch for this year’s Six Nations Championship that there was a possibility she might be called into the Irish camp as the tournament progressed.

This has now proven to be the case with the former Railway Union and Wasps hooker being called into Ireland training this week on the back of a phone conversation with Bemand.

“We’d been in comms [with Moloney] for a reasonable while. We’d been tracking how she’s playing. We got to a point where we feel it’s the right time. We’re carrying two hookers within the 36,” Bemand explained at a press conference held at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre earlier today.

“We’ve two training panellist hookers who are relatively recent conversions to hookers too. Sarah [Delaney] has picked up a little bit of a ding on her shoulder, so it’s the right time to give her an opportunity.

“The conversation was very informal. I’ve been in England, I’ve bumped into her, crossed paths. She knew that she was working hard around performance and there’d be a point that we may look at her or may not. It’s an opportunity that’s presented itself.

“We base everything around our on-pitch performances. We feel this is the right time, we feel she can add to it so she was pretty pleased to say ‘yeah, I’d be up for coming in’.”

Courtesy of the aforementioned knock picked up by Delaney – who was named as replacement hooker for Ireland’s defeats to France and Italy in the opening two rounds of the Six Nations – there is every chance that Moloney could be thrown straight into the match day 23 when Ireland welcome Wales to Virgin Media Park in Cork for a third round Six Nations clash on Saturday (kick-off 4.45pm).

While he stressed that his selection for the game hasn’t been finalised just yet, Bemand acknowledged the importance of having someone with 31 international caps to her name within his set-up.

“We haven’t done selection yet. We’ve got a training week for us to bed-in, get to know her, get to know us. She’s day two. She’s going fine and we’ll see what that looks like for selection.

“You’re going into these Six Nations games that carry a bit of weight. It’s going to be a good ding-dong battle against Wales. Having a few caps, a few experiences under your belt I think probably gives you something that you can fall back on.”

Sitting beside Bemand at today’s press conference was someone that knows Moloney better than anyone within the Irish squad. Having previously played alongside her at Wasps, Ireland co-captain Edel McMahon still counts the Galway native as a club-mate at Premiership Women’s Rugby outfit Exeter Chiefs.

In addition to sharing an international dressing room with her on several occasions in the past, the openside flanker also lives with Moloney over in England and is acutely aware of how much it means to her to be back in an Ireland squad once again.

“It’s brilliant. I live with her, so I think I know her quite well! I’ve been privileged to play with her for a long time with Wasps and Chiefs, so I just know the standard that she lives by day-to-day. What she brings on the pitch and she’s slotted in very well and is training well as well,” McMahon said.

“She carries well and she’s slotted in really well with the girls already. Just going about her business.”

Daire Walsh