Ireland Women’s 7s Squad Named For Opening Round Of Rugby Europe Grand Prix

The Ireland Women’s 7s side for first round of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix, which takes place in Marcoussis, Paris on Friday and Saturday has been confirmed.

Four Munster players are named in the squad, including Aoife Doyle, Louise Galvin, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird, as well as Cork’s Audrey O’Flynn.

The tournament, which will be live streamed on RugbyEurope.tv, is the first of two competitions that make up the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series, with the second leg taking place in Kazan, Russia on the 1st & 2nd September.

Ireland are drawn in Pool B with Poland, Scotland and Wales.

Lucy Mulhall captains the side, which shows one change from the team that lined out for the final round of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Paris earlier this month.

O’Flynn returns to the team, having missed out on Paris.

The remainder of the squad are unchanged, and features youngsters Kathy Baker and Eve Higgins, who both won their first caps this season and celebrated birthdays this week, with Baker turning 20 and Higgins, who was one of the nominees for Rookie of the Year at the World Rugby Sevens Awards, turning 19.

Both players, along with fellow squad members Doyle, Stacey Flood, Katie Heffernan and Murphy-Crowe have progressed through the Ireland Women’s Sevens pathway, having played at Under 18 level before progressing to the senior ranks.

Completing the squad are Ashleigh Baxter, Katie Fitzhenry, Galvin and Nic A Bhaird.

Ahead of the competition getting underway, Director of Sevens Rugby, Anthony Eddy said:

“This weekend is another important tournament in our season and with the standard of rugby continuing to improve across all competitions, the players will have some tough games ahead over the next two days.

With two legs on the Grand Prix Series, we’ll be looking to get things off to a good start tomorrow and finish with some valuable points on the board ahead of the second leg in Kazan in September.

The Sevens Rugby World Cup is also now only a few weeks away so we will be looking to build momentum ahead of our departure to San Francisco.”

The Men’s and Women’s 7s side will both compete at the World Rugby Sevens Rugby World Cup in San Francisco over the weekend of the 20/21/22 July at the AT&T Stadium (tickets available here: www.rwcsevens.com/tickets)

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS Squad (2018 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series – Round 1, Marcoussis, Paris, France) Friday, June 29 – Saturday, June 30):

Kathy Baker (Blackrock/Leinster)
Ashleigh Baxter (Cooke/Ulster)
Aoife Doyle (Railway Union & Shannon (dual status)/Munster)
Katie Fitzhenry (Blackrock/Leinster)
Stacey Flood (Railway Union/Leinster)
Louise Galvin (UL Bohemians/Munster)
Katie Heffernan (Railway Union & Mullingar (dual status))
Eve Higgins (Railway Union/Leinster)
Lucy Mulhall (Rathdrum) (Captain)
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union/Munster)
Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird (UL Bohemians/Munster)
Audrey O’Flynn (Ireland Sevens Programme)

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS Fixtures:

Marcoussis 7s – Pool B:

Friday, June 29:

Ireland v Scotland –12.44pm local time/11.44am Irish time
Ireland v Poland – 3.39pm local time/2.29pm Irish time
Ireland v Wales, 6.14pm local time/5.14pm Irish time

Saturday, June 30:

Play-Offs

The full fixtures/pools are available on the Rugby Europe tournament page.