Men Join Women Into Sevens World Cup

It’s set to be a super summer of sevens rugby in San Francisco next year, as the Ireland Men joined their female counterparts by qualifying for the 2017 Sevens World Cup last weekend.

Ireland’s third placed finish at last weekend’s Exeter Sevens, losing only the cup semi-final to Wales across the two days, was enough to book their spot in next year’s tournament by virtue of their second place in the Rugby Sevens Grand Prix.

Anthony Eddy’s outfit saw Russia beat the Welsh in the final and nip in at the final hurdle to capture the Grand Prix title, but a historic afternoon none-the-less, as the Irish now have both teams going to Sevens World Cups for the first time in their history.

A side which contained Shannon’s Greg O’Shea once again topped their pool, beating Portugal, Belgium, and France to setup a quarter-final tie with hosts England.

A sluggish Irish side went behind early to an Alex Davis try, but a Jordan Conroy score before the half-time hooter made it 7-5 at the interval. This Irish side have been extremely ruthless throughout the competition, and were no match for their neighbours, running in a further three tries to secure their passage to the penultimate stage with a 24-7 win.

Their winning run was to end against Wales, who scored first before sucker-punching the Irish with a score just after half-time, and having run in a last-minute score, Mark Roche couldn’t slot the conversion and time ran out on a 15-12 defeat.

From there Eddy’s outfit came up against a Portugal side battling for their own World Cup chances in the 3rd placed playoff. Hugo Keenan struck for a try after just 27 seconds, Roche taking a penalty quickly after a high tackle and the UCD youngster finished off from close range.

With Bernardo Cardoso sin-binned for the high tackle, Ireland had to take advantage and they did with a second try from Keenan who was fed by Ian Fitzpatrick to score in the right corner, making it 12-0.

More tries, including a score from O’Shea, cancelling out Frederico Oliveira’s consolation, secured a comfortable 33-12 victory for the Irish, who can start planning their trip alongside the women for the West Coast of America next summer.

Ireland Men’s Sevens Squad (2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series – Round 4, Sandy Park, Exeter, Saturday, July 15-Sunday, July 16):

Fionn Carr (Naas)
Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Billy Dardis (UCD) (capt)
Ian Fitzpatrick (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster)
Adam Leavy (Galwegians/Connacht) *
Harry McNulty (UCD)
Jimmy O’Brien (UCD/Leinster)
John O’Donnell (Lansdowne)
Greg O’Shea (Shannon)
Mark Roche (Lansdowne)
Nick Timoney (Queen’s University/Ulster)