Claire Molloy ready to embrace leadership role

Claire Molloy has not had much time to settle in. An injury to captain Niamh Briggs. A phone call and a conversation. Molloy's answer was yes. Ireland had a new captain.

"I think you've got to answer yes," she says. "It's a home World Cup. This is a once in a lifetime thing.

“We’re never going to have a World Cup at home again, and that’s for every player in the squad. We’ve got to make the most of the opportunities.

“I felt, well, can I do the best for the girls and will I have the girls behind me? I thought ‘that’s what they’re going to do, they’re going to follow me’. It was a yes, along with a deep breath.”

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Molloy is excellent in dealing with the now. Her appointment as captain was a change of tack by the Irish management as Paula Fitzpatrick was in position for the Six Nations.

Less a demotion than a rethink about what a World Cup captain entails, Molloy was called on Tuesday night when Briggs was ruled out. It began as a conversation about a leadership group before a realisation dawned that she was being asked to be Irish captain.

“The rationale is that I have experience. I have been to three World Cups,” she says. “It might be a title. But, I will be looking to Paula [Fitzpatrick], Maz [Marie Louise Reilly], Nora [Stapleton], Ailis Egan to help me out, to lead on the pitch.”

After all the talk, now just days remain. Australia in the first match in Dublin on Wednesday evening will be a yardstick of Irish potential.

There is desperation in the camp to do well with Molloy more than most able to see how the sport has snowballed from modest beginnings to where it is now.

She understands eyes will be on them. People will be ready to judge. She probably knows too the teams will be unfairly measured against men with trite comparisons, largely by those who have forgotten that in most women's sport there has always been a struggle. Rugby is no different from the Irish soccer team, our athletes or Katie Taylor.

But Molloy’s experience and her intelligence to confront issues rather than ignore them shines through. Perhaps it’s a doctor thing but her words are carefully chosen. She brings a calming reassurance to the job.

A nuisance

Leading Ireland out against Australia in a World Cup is something she has never done before. This will be a tournament of changing realities and new exposures for her and the squad.

“I can’t lie to you, of course I’ve thought about it,” she says of leading Ireland out. “What I’ve got to do...I’ve got to do what I do on the pitch. That’s why I’m in that role, because of how I play on the pitch. That’s the most important thing.

“The best thing I could do for those girls is just play my game. Be a nuisance, be annoying on the pitch. Annoy the crap out of them, because that’s what I do on a pitch, and that’s how I’m going to lead.”

She understands too it is opportunity, a platform to drive her sport. The seated Belfield Bowl holds more than 3,000 and will be full for the opening match, an inconceivable thought ten years ago. New pressures for the Irish team and maybe different answers will be required.

“I think we can’t ignore it [pressure],” she says. “It’s there. But I think we’ve got take it as a positive. I think we’ve got to drive on, and just remember it’s a game of rugby.

“We are the best 28 players in our country, and we’ve got to represent ourselves. We don’t have to do anything that we haven’t done before on the pitch. It’s nothing different, and that’s what we’re driving home to the girls. This is a game of rugby that we’re just going to go out and win.”

The 29-year-old will talk about performance and systems and team unity. But the Australian game is about just one thing, the result. A performance is almost pointless if the win does not come with it.

It is then when other influences take hold like team morale and tournament momentum, inflating or deflating confidence. The first match will shape the entire group phase.

“Completely –it is about the result,” she says. “We don’t need to worry about how much. It just has to be a win. After 80 minutes, we have to come off as victors.”

For the stand-in captain the message is clear. There are no clouds in her sight line.

“It was a big emotional blow. It was very sad to see that to happen to Niamh,” she says. “Unfortunately, it is high performance sport. We’ve got to move on. We’ve got to gather ourselves.”