John Mitchell, you big spoilsport.
The England head coach had the opportunity to set up a remarkable situation in this afternoon's Guinness Women’s Six Nations meeting between his side and Ireland, but - ever the professional - he allowed his head rule the heart.
The selection call he made was to leave Claudia MacDonald out of his squad. The 33-cap winger is yet to feature in this Six Nations, having spent 10 months out with a neck injury last year, her second major neck injury in three seasons.
MacDonald’s injury comeback is only a fraction of the narrative though, because next month the Exeter Chiefs back is getting married to Ireland hooker Cliodhna Moloney.
"We’ve been together seven years and through lots of different circumstances, but we’ve never actually come up against each other and we’ve played together for that whole time in Wasps and now Exeter Chiefs," Moloney said about the prospect of playing Test rugby against her fiancée.
"She’s shown incredible resilience, obviously her second neck injury. It is quite scary. It makes you question how important sport is, or how important rugby is, because there were aspects of her day-to-day life that, had it not repaired itself, it would have been very different for our whole lives going forward.
"Luckily it was able to repair itself and she’s now back playing rugby. She’s very committed and obviously resilient individual. There’s no doubt it was hard. It was really, really hard."
We won’t bear a grudge against Mitchell. The idea of a soon-to-be married couple playing a Six Nations game on opposite sides would have added a quirky narrative to the game, but ultimately it’s a trivial sideshow. The fact that the England head coach didn’t bow to the masses should be seen as a sign that he and his team mean business.
Moloney and MacDonald may not be in direct competition on the pitch this week, but they remain in competition off it, with one side trying to plot the downfall of the other.
We’ve seen similar instances in the men’s game before, most notably with Ireland head coach Andy Farrell and his son Owen, when he was playing for England.
And while the communication lines remained open this week, it was strictly personal.
"It’s life as normal. We don’t change too much. We would talk to each other about 'How’s your day gone? Did you train well?’ If you’ve experienced issues, or whatever.
"It wouldn’t be detail around those [match] issues so it's just a normal chat like you would have with your partner after coming home from work I suppose.
"It hasn’t been much different to be fair, because we don’t share that technical detail or what we’re doing. It’s exciting, it’s probably going to be challenging. I don’t know what it's going to be like, I’ve never done this before!"
It’s been a year since Moloney returned to Test rugby, having been exiled since the end of 2022 following her criticism of former IRFU women’s rugby director Anthony Eddy.
When Scott Bemand brought her back into the mix, she entered an Irish squad that was still working their way back up from the bottom, exemplified by their 88-10 defeat to the Red Roses in her second game back.
But one year on, Moloney believes this Irish team are unrecognisable from Twickenham in 2024.
"There’s obviously a massive difference. Our set-piece has grown from a coaching perspective but also from a player expectation. When we train units downstairs or outside, the detail that the girls are operating at weekly, it’s advancing all the time. And that expectation is very high in the group.
"The physicality is going up a lot. The ball-in-play, we’re trying to push that. We’re trying to play quick, we’re trying to play on top of teams. And you feel it in your body and you feel it in the intensity after sessions.
"We just had a big day out there today, but people are happy and excited after it rather than worrying or looking back. They want more. That’s probably the biggest thing with this group.
And whatever the outcome of today, Moloney says defeats like last year in London are a thing of the past.
"I think a lot has changed and people have learned a lot, that [England game last year] was probably the biggest game they’d experienced ever for this group.
"That will never happen again, I think we’d all say that."
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