Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BEWARE OF THE AUSSIES SAYS CLAIRE
Ireland v Australia Pool C, today 7pm
AFTER a year of sacrifices on and off the pitch, the Irish women’s rugby team finally get to run out as World Cup hosts tonight – and skipper Claire Molloy warns Australia will want to spoil the party.
The tournament, which is being beamed to 110 counties, gets underway in Dublin today with all 12 nations in action and there will be no wriggle room if Ireland mess up against the Aussies.
Pool C rivals France are the main threat to Ireland’s bid to reach the semi-finals but the Wallaroos, Olympic champions in Sevens’ rugby, could stall the home side’s progress.
“They will want to be party spoilers and will have targeted this game,” insists Molloy. “Australia are going to be our biggest barrier straight away.” There is a lot of expectation on Ireland. They’re ranked fourth favourites behind champions England, New Zealand and Canada and became the first Irish rugby team to ever beat
New Zealand when they shocked the Black Ferns at the 2014 World Cup en route to making the semi-finals.
They’ve trained hard for the past year to be in the best possible shape and Molloy admits: “It seems like we’ve been preparing for this forever.
“It seems very surreal because we’ve been waiting for three years for this to come around, to play Australia in the first game.
“We just want to get on with it. It’s the first time we’ve been in a set-up where for three weeks it is just rugby. We have no other worries, no other concerns, and I’m really hoping that is going to boost our performances.”
Molloy is heading into her third World Cup and the flanker was only appointed as skipper last week when Niamh Briggs had to withdraw with injury. She says she will lead by example and considering her day job is as an A&E doctor in Wales, it’s no surprise she’s taking the sudden change in circumstances in her stride.
She added: “I’ll give my best out there for the girls. We had a strong leadership group throughout the Six Nations and there are so many leaders on and off the pitch. I’m really just there to facilitate these awesome people. It’s going to be an amazing experience and the most watched women’s rugby sports event ever. We’re so excited to just get out and play.”
Dr Molloy has gone part-time in the last year in order to prepare for the biggest sporting highlight of her career.
She said: “It’s really allowed me to throw myself into the rugby and it’s massively benefitted my game. Most of our girls are working Monday to
Friday and fitting their training and conditioning in around that.
“It’s been a very tough year with an intense schedule of training and all the sacrifices we’ve made in terms of family, friends and commitments, but this is our reward.”
Pool B, UCD Bowl, 2pm Pool A, Billings Park, 2.45pm Pool B, UCD Bowl, 4.30pm Pool A, Billings Park, 5.15pm Pool C, UCD Bowl, 7pm Pool C, Billings Park, 7.45pm