Five Munster Players In Ireland Sevens Squad

The IRFU today announced that 19 players are now centrally contracted with the Ireland Women’s Sevens High Performance Programme.

Five players from Munster have been named in the squad. Shannon duo Aoife Doyle and Nicole Cronin, Tralee's Siobhán Barrett, Claire Keohane from UL Bohemian and Clanwilliam's Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe.

The squad also includes three of Ireland Women's Rugby World Cup stars, wingers Ashleigh Baxter and Alison Miller and centre, Jenny Murphy. Along with the rest of the squad, they will train full- time at the IRFU Seven's High Performance Base in Dublin City University (DCU).

11 of the contracted players came through previous IRFU Talent ID (TID) programmes, with a number of girls coming from different sporting backgrounds including Football, Athletics and Hockey.

A further screening camp takes place on the weekend of 1st November at the High Performance Base in DCU.

All female athletes who have dreamt of representing Ireland on a world stage can register for the TID day at www.irishrugby.ie/womens7s.

Speaking about becoming a professional rugby player, Jenny Murphy said: "It's great to be training and playing rugby every day. I am looking forward to getting started on the circuit.

"I have been lucky to play with some fantastic rugby players and have learned so much from them, now hopefully I can use some of the experience I have gained in the Rugby World Cup and 6 Nations in the Sevens programme.

"The sky's the limit, we have a huge challenge ahead of us to reach Rio, but we're not the kind of team to shirk away from anything difficult. I am looking forward to it.”

Ireland have two opportunities to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The first is an Olympic Qualification tournament which will be held in Europe in July 2015 with the winner of this event qualifying for Rio. The second is via an Olympic Repechage Tournament which will be held between January and June 2016.

Ireland Women's Sevens Centralised Contracted Players
Siobhán Barrett (Tralee/Munster)
Ashleigh Baxter (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Nicole Cronin (Shannon/Munster)
Nicole Caughey (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Aoife Doyle (Shannon/Munster)
Katie Fitzhenry (Blackrock/Leinster)
Lisa Jacob (Talent ID Programme)
Claire Keohane (UL Bohemian/Munster)
Martina McCarthy (St. Mary's/Talent ID Programme)
Alison Miller (Portlaoise/Connacht)
Jenny Murphy (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Lucy Mulhall (Talent ID Programme)
Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe (Clanwilliam/Munster)
Elaine Ryan (Talent ID Programme)
Hannah Tyrrell (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Lauralee Walsh (Talent ID Programme)
Susan Vaughan (Railway Union/Leinster)
Megan Williams (Saracens/Exiles)
Ailsa Hughes (Tullamore/Leinster)