Women’s Rugby World Cup: Ireland’s Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald ‘excited’ to start against Spain

Women’s Rugby World Cup – Pool C: Ireland v Spain

Venue: Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton Date: Sunday, 31 August Kick-off: 12:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Two, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app.

Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald is Ireland’s sole survivor from the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup and says it is “a very different experience” this time around.

The 32-year-old hooker will make her first start of the 2025 competition against Spain on Sunday, having been a second-half replacement in last Sunday’s opening 42-14 win against Japan.

Moloney-MacDonald – whose wife, Claudia, scored a try in England’s 92-3 win over Samoa on Saturday – has experienced the highs and lows in the green jersey and says she is “excited” to start against Spain.

It’s a big week for a number of the Irish squad, with Linda Djougang preparing to win her 50th cap and Sadhbh McGrath celebrating her 21st birthday on Saturday, while Moloney-MacDonald’s Exeter Chiefs club-mate Nancy McGillivray is in line for her first taste of World Cup action having been named on the bench.

“It’s a very different experience, even in terms of the members of staff we have and how big the squad is,” she told BBC Sport NI.

“We’d only 28 back then and now we’ve 32. You’d be surprised how much those four players can make to the quality of training.

“The last one was special because it was a home World Cup in Ireland and this one is as close as it could be, but then you have the numbers growing.

“It’s Sadhbh McGrath’s 21st birthday today and then you have Linda getting her 50th (cap), stark contrasts, but the younger girls are not fazed by that. If I was 21 at that last World Cup in 2017 it would have been a very different experience for me.”