Cliodhna Moloney ‘in the dark’ over controversial Ireland snub

Moloney was controversially overlooked for the Six Nations, and although IRFU CEO Kevin Potts and Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams have both stated that the decision was based on form, many eyebrows have been raised.

Moloney hit the headlines last year when she branded comments made by Ireland’s former director of women’s rugby as “slurry spreading”, after Anthony Eddy appeared to lay the blame for the World Cup qualifier failure at the feet of the players.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s ‘The Left Wing’ podcast, Moloney admitted she didn’t know if she was paying the price for her stinging criticism of Eddy.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you,” Moloney said.

“I would probably be as much in the dark as everyone else, I don’t know. All I know is what has been said.

“I haven’t had any other conversations. I haven’t been in camp to know any different. All we are left with is what has been put out there, which is that it’s a rugby decision and it’s based on form.

“I don’t know one way or another. I can’t read minds unfortunately. That’s as much as I know.”

Moloney (28) is a vastly experienced operator who is plying her trade with Wasps in the Premiership, yet she has been deemed surplus to requirements despite Ireland’s struggles at the set-piece in the opening two Six Nations defeats.

The Galway woman does not know if a recall is on the cards, but she is adamant that she would add value to the squad, as she addressed the question around her current form.

“It’s a difficult one because I admittedly got a red card in a big game against Harlequins just after Christmas,” Moloney added.

“It ended up being a three-match ban, reduced to two because I did the coaching intervention course, so I actually only ended up missing out on one game because the other game was postponed due to Covid.

“But I guess that in itself would have maybe taken me out of even just preparing for those games that didn’t happen. It probably did have a little bit of an impact on my run of form post-Christmas.

“I would be a fool to lie to you. I still obviously believe I am good enough to be in there. You have to have that belief in yourself as a player. I believe I would have something to offer but again, I’m not selecting the team.

“The scrum issues in particular, it’s really hard to see from the outside, you don’t really know what’s happening. You need to be in there to get a feel on how to fix things. I hope I’d be able to offer something there. You always back yourself, you wouldn’t be playing international rugby if you didn’t.”