Sam Monaghan: I wouldn't be here without Clíodhna Moloney

The whole of Irish rugby owes Clíodhna Moloney a debt of gratitude as the hooker makes her return from a two and a half year exile from Test rugby against Wales this afternoon.

For Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan, that debt extends back long before Moloney was sticking her head above the parapet to drive standards in women's rugby.

The pair first connected as team-mates at Wasps. Monaghan had been a late convert to rugby, only picking up the sport when she moved to Brighton for work.

The Meath woman took to the sport quickly, and was recruited to Wasps in 2020, where she linked up with a large Irish contingent, among them Moloney and her fellow co-captain of Ireland Edel McMahon.

"She's probably part of the reason I'm in this set-up. I learned so much from her experience," Monaghan said of her former Wasps, and current Ireland, team-mate.

"I started playing rugby down in Brighton and was a very GAA greenhorn coming into the set-up. I actually didn't know a lot of laws. She took me under her wing.

"There was Ciara Cooney, Claire Molloy, Tricky [McMahon], all of those Irish girls were there. They saw something in me that I probably didn’t see in myself and just directed me in the right way.

"Just in terms of lineout, she’s a great lineout operator, [she] helped me, even though she doesn’t jump or lift, to do extra reps after sessions. Just looked after me and made sure I was going in the right direction.

"A serious ball carrier and a great tackler. An aggressive player and that’s what we need in the squad to build on."

The 30-year-old made her debut during Ireland's ill-fated World Cup qualifying campaign in 2021, just a couple of months before Moloney's now infamous criticism of former women's director Anthony Eddy, following his