Ireland’s Cliodhna Moloney met fiancée cycing in the Alps

There are exciting times ahead for Cliodhna Moloney and Claudia MacDonald, and this time it won’t be on the rugby pitch, but more so on a sun-kissed Greek island.

Cliodhna, who is from Galway, was making quite a name for herself in rugby, playing for her country when she was picked up by the Coventry team, The Wasps, in 2018. Here, partner Claudia is also a renowned player from Epsom in the UK and has also played for her county.

However, it was Cliodhna’s move to England that would not only enhance her career but would also find her love.

Sitting down with EVOKE before the big day on May 11, Cliodhna revealed how they met. When Cliodhna had signed for the UK team, she was still living, working and playing in Dublin, but it was her new boss, the Director of Rugby for the Wasps Women’s team, who persuaded her to come on holiday with the team before training kicked off.

‘She (Giselle Mather), used to bring everyone together on a pre-season tour, and no wasn’t an easy answer for her. I was still actually living and working in Dublin at the time, and I was going to join them for the following season, but she said, you know, you need to come on this pre-season trip, and I said, ok, so I took some time off work.’

Heading to the French Alps, Cliodhna and Claudia were the ‘newbies’ on the team, as Claudia had signed hr contract around the same time as her soon-to-be wife.

Looking back, Cliodhna said, ‘ It was probably one of the most fun pre-season trips I’ve ever been on. We cycled around the French Alps, rode around the lakes, rode cross-country races through the mountains, shot archery, and everything.

First Date

Getting to know each other on the trip, we ask Cliodhna if it was love at first sight for the Galway girl

‘I think I knew straight away, but it probably took her a while…I think I must be quite predictable, because a few of my friends even knew by me. They were like, go on then, who is she? Which one?’

When it came to their first date, the couple kept it simple and went to Cafe Nero in Ealing (London), for a coffee and a chat. This went well, telling us ‘the first official date, like when we were seeing each other, we booked to go ice skating because Claudia liked to do that, and I had never been before, and I just pretended I knew what I was doing, and I didn’t at all. We then went to the National History Museum in London.’

Proposal

In 2023, Cliodhna popped the question on the 26th of August. Thinking back to the day she said, ‘We first met in August and I always kind of had it in my head to do it around that time. Ideally, I would have liked to go back to where we met in the Alps, but rugby got in the way.’

Heading down to Cornwall on a camping trip, with the rugby team, she brought Claudia down to one of the beaches and got down on one knee.

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Wedding

With the big day set for May 11, Cliodhna gave EVOKE a small insight into their wedding. ‘It’s in Rhodes in Greece….We both have all of our families coming and a couple of close friends. I think that the numbers are only around 60 or 65.’

‘We’re gonna bring everyone together for a barbecue the day before, on Saturday. The wedding itself will be a little bit later. It’ll be in the afternoon, so people have the morning to chill by the pool. And then, on the day after, we’re all going on a boat trip where people can just drink and enjoy themselves and jump in and out of the sea and go snorkelling.’

Hoping to enjoy two weeks in the sun, the rugby star says they haven’t decided on a honeymoon just yet, but catching the boat to Turkey for a few days, while they are in Greece, is definitely an option.

With not long to go, excitement is building and the girls and their family are counting down the days until they say ‘I do.’

Congratulations, Cliodhna and Claudia