CLIODHNA MOLONEY-MACDONALD finds herself holding a distinct honour in the Ireland women’s rugby squad. With this summer’s Rugby World Cup fast approaching, the hooker is the only member of Scott Bemand’s pre-tournament training panel with previous experience of playing in a World Cup.

Moloney-MacDonald was part of Tom Tierney’s squad for the 2017 tournament in Ireland, starting four games and coming off the bench in one as Ireland recorded an eighth-place finish. The current group have designs on improving on that return this time around, having missed out on the 2021 tournament before enjoying an encouraging upturn in form over the past two seasons.

Confidence shouldn’t be an issue as Ireland prepare to return to the game’s showpiece event, but if any players do feel the need to tap Moloney-MacDonald on the shoulder for a word of advice, she’s not sure her own World Cup experience is all that relevant given how the game has moved on.

“I think a lot has changed, to be fair,” she says. “The tournament structure has changed hugely. The numbers that go has changed hugely. Women’s rugby has advanced a lot.

Moloney-MacDonald speaking to the media in Abbotstown yesterday. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“So while I think I might have experience and people will be asking me questions anyway, that’s not World Cup relevant. I’ve been around a long time, I do know a lot of players from other countries and how they play, and I’ve experienced playing against a lot of other countries, even at a club level, like playing over in England, I would experience playing against a lot of these teams and players from these teams.

“So I think that’s more the point of experience, rather than having been at the World Cup or not.

“The length of the tournament is probably the biggest thing people need to prepare for. It’s a long, intense tournament and it’s a very intense environment, and probably, like, media presence and pressure will be at the most intense it’s ever been for anyone. I don’t think anyone can prepare you for that, other than your own personal preparation and focus. I can’t give anyone any advice on how to deal with that because none of us have experienced that level before.”

The intensity stretches across most of the summer. Ireland went into their pre-tournament training camp in early June and won’t play their final pool game until early September. The first hurdles are a pair of warm-up games over the next two weekends, against Scotland in Cork and Canada in Belfast, before the main event finally kicks-off. Ireland open their pool campaign against Japan in Northampton on 24 August, before games against Spain (31 August) and New Zealand (7 September).

Given this World Cup is taking place so close to home, Moloney-MacDonald – who plays her club rugby in England with Exeter Chiefs – is anticipating a strong Irish backing. That’s a big motivating factor for the group, as is the sense that women’s rugby has never had more eyes on it.

“It’s been thrown around a lot like a game-changing moment for women’s rugby. But I do really think with the amount of support that is in and around this part of the world for women’s rugby, I do think it’ll be a point in time that we’ll look back on and say that was where the tide turned, and support really got ploughed in for everyone this side of the world, particularly for women’s rugby and the growth of that game.

“We’re as close as we could be to a home World Cup so the support element will hopefully be huge,” she continues.

The hooker has 43 caps for Ireland. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“You probably could get in a position where you put a lot of pressure on yourself, especially the first game, but we have already spoken about that as a team and we are trying to work week to week and that is our main focus. We won’t think past the first game but we won’t put too much pressure on it either. We can break everything down into many components that will result in success, and that’s kind of what we’ve been doing. So it’s not about opening games of tournaments or first games meaning so much, it’s more like measurable, achievable, small things that we know will give us the result we want.”

The preparation has been long and challenging. The group were put through two three-week blocks of pre-season, with the days eventually moving away from pure fitness work and more toward sessions focused on skills, analysis and team bonding.

“The stuff with Ruth Montgomery, who’s our stat sports, she’s very good. Some of the games that she came up with and the inventive ways that she was involving everyone, even if players were load-managed, injured or whatever, if they weren’t physical on-pitch tasks, she was doing stuff off-pitch.

“Some of them are GPS-related, some of them might have been gym related. So we were doing, who’s got the heaviest squat per body weight? Who can do the most chins? Who can lift the most weight, bench? All that kind of stuff. But then we were doing team challenges in our mini units like silly games. We did a bit of foot golf today. It’s just good craic. And it’s good to keep the staff involved as well. Like we are one unit, whole team. And I can’t credit Ruth enough, she’s been very inventive with the games she’s come up with us to keep everyone together.”

Internally, Ireland will set goals around what they want to achieve in this World Cup, with the minimum aim getting to the knockout rounds. Yet some goals won’t be measured by where the team end up in the final standings.

“We do have our goals individually and for each game, and obviously we need to get there first. So that’s kind of the main focus right now.

“But obviously the overall plan and strategy and everything is about growing the game in Ireland and that’s always in the back of our mind. When we travel over to England, the lucky ones that get to go, we want to bring the sport with us, but we also want to leave a legacy from this World Cup in terms of our performance and how we are supported by the Irish people.”