Ireland coach Declan Danaher hails Cliodhna Moloney’s ‘seamless’ return as she prepares for first Ireland cap since 2021

Moloney – who has 31 international caps – has been named on the bench for Saturday’s Women’s Six Nations game against Wales at Musgrave Park.

Moloney had been controversially excluded from national squads for nearly two-and-a-half years including for the 2022 and 2023 Six Nations campaigns.

Moloney was recalled to the squad after substitute hooker Sarah Delaney picked up a shoulder injury last week.

Since joining the squad at Abbotstown at the start of this week, Moloney has had to learn the line-out calls and attack plays but she’s been helped by her Exeter team-mate, Edel McMahon.

“She (Moloney) is obviously playing at Exeter so she knows Edel. Her and Edel are thick as thieves, so Edel’s obviously been looking after her. She knows Sam (Monaghan, Ireland lock) and obviously it’s important for her and Sam to work together,” Danaher said today.

“They’ve obviously spent some time together. Those three working together have been connected and getting in front of things. In terms of her personality and interactions I’ve had with her, she’s just got her head down and sort of got on with it.

“From my interactions, she likes getting around the corner, she likes carrying the ball, she likes making tackles. The more she can do that the happier I’ll be.

“Neve (Jones, starting hooker) is obviously playing incredibly well so its great to have two hookers that are obviously playing in the women’s Premiership in England and at a very, very high standard from what I can see.

"A lot of the girls I’m working with are over there and you can see the standard of the competition. The ability to come in and fit pretty seamlessly has been a testament to that competition.”

There is one change to the Ireland team that started the defeat to Italy at the RDS two weeks ago.

Co-captain Edel McMahon returns to the team in place of Grace Moore who drops out of the matchday squad.

The uncapped Shannon Ikahihifo has also been named on the bench. McMahon wasn’t selected for the game against Italy.

“The competition in the backrow at the moment is phenomenal between Aoife Wafer, Brit (Murphy), Edel, Shannon,” said Danaher.

“I think every week they are getting better and better and I think that’s what Edel has done to get herself an opportunity to be involved again.

“It’s been brilliant to see and I think if they can play half as well as they’re training we’ll be in a good place”.

Wales have made four changes to the team that started the 46-10 defeat to England in round two. Prop Sisilia Tuipulotu, flanker Alisha Butchers, scrum-half Keira Bevan and winger Jasmine Joyce all return to the starting team.

Like Ireland, Wales have also lost their two opening games and they’re bottom of the table after two rounds with Ireland above them on points difference.

Wales have beaten Ireland for the past two years including a thumping 31-5 win in Cardiff last year.

“We know Wales are going to come after our breakdown. They’re going to go pretty hard there so it’s not necessarily something that I see as an opportunity to exploit but I think the girls are very aware that that’s an area that we’ve got to be hot on from minute one,” he said.

“They’ve got players in their backrow and across the field who can turn the ball over pretty quick. So it’ll almost be a battle of the breakdown.

“Can we keep hold of it and create momentum while they try to hunt and turn the ball over?”

Ireland lost 27-21 to Italy in their first home game of the season two weeks ago. Danaher believes they can take a lot from the attacking opportunities they created in that game.

“We had a pretty decent first 20 minutes, probably didn’t just come away with enough points for the territory and the possession we had,” he said.

“The good thing is we’re creating those opportunities. It would be far worse if we were trying to create them and its how we can convert one or two more of those to give ourselves momentum.”

Ireland team: L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, E Breen B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, S Monaghan (co-capt); A Wafer, E McMahon (co-capt), B Hogan. Replacements: C Moloney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, S Ikahihifo, M Scuffil-McCabe, N Fowley, A Dalton.

Wales team: J Hesketh; J Joyce, H Jones (capt), K Lake, C Cox; L George, K Bevan; G Prys, C Phillips, S Tuipulotu; A Fleming, G Evans; A Butchers, A Callender, B Lewis. Replacements: M Reardon, A Constable, D Rose, N John, G Hopkins, S Jones, K Powell, C Keight.