It was a mixed bag for Ireland Women’s Sevens on Day 2 of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont.
The team kicked off the day with a 33 – 0 win against Japan, their equalling biggest win ever in the Sevens Series. Alison Miller, Aoife Doyle and Amee-Leigh Crowe all crossed for a try and Lucy Mulhall crossed for two to add to four conversions.
Ireland progressed to the Bowl Final where they came up against an out of sorts Russia but there was to be no silverware for Ireland with Russia cruising to a 24 – 5 win, Ireland’s score coming from Audrey O’Flynn.
The result left Ireland as the bottom core team of the Series with Japan finishing a point above them. However both Ireland and Japan will need to re-qualify for inclusion as a core team in next years series.
*Brazil, Kenya and Colombia by invitation, non core teams.
All in all it has to be considered a disappointing series for the Irish side who had much higher expectations than an 11th place finish and if this was a men’s side competing under similar circumstances then more than a few heads would roll and rightly so.
It’s probably too close to the all encompassing Olympic Repêchage at the end of June but I would expect major changes after.
Head to heads
Ireland’s record over the series doesn’t make for good reading; Played 25, Won 6, Lost 19 and of those six wins four were against, fellow struggler’s, Japan. Their record against all teams as follows:
Team
Played
Won
Lost
Canada
4
0
4
Japan
4
4
0
Fiji
3
0
3
Russia
3
0
3
Australia
2
0
2
Brazil
2
0
2
France
2
0
2
Spain
2
1
1
USA
2
1
1
England
1
0
1
Total
25
6
19
The chief concern is that Ireland showed little sustained improvement throughout the series. There were some signs around the Atlanta tournament but they were unable to maintain this over the next two rounds, their worst opening day coming in the last tournament, in Clermont, with 99 points shipped over the three games.
While fairly new to the sevens game Ireland aren’t that far behind the other teams so as to make these results acceptable. The then IRB Women’s Seven’s World Series started in 2012 – 13 and Ireland submitted an invitational team to compete in the round in China and ended up coming 5th!
That team was made up largely of stalwarts from, what was to become, the Six Nations Grand Slam Winning Team, who also took time out to finish in the top eight of the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens Tournament, qualifying as a core team for the 2013 – 14 IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in the process.
However, with the bulk of the team reverting back to the 15’s game, for the 2014 World Cup, Ireland finished bottom of the core teams with 11 points.
Since then they have changed their coach and had two years to rebuild and regroup but it appears they have made little progress as they again finished bottom of the core teams on 11 points.
Having watched all 25 of their games during the 2015-16 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series I’ve been most disappointed by their tactical awareness, or lack there-off. Sure they lack the power, pace and play-makers of the big four, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and England, but they should have been much more competitive against teams like Russia, Brazil, Spain and even France, Fiji and the USA with the hugely physical France being the team they should aspire to emulate.
The only team they had regular success against were the, physically inferior, Japan, but even they switched up their tactics often enough to end the series ahead of Ireland.
It’s a poor return for a lot of time and effort but it will probably all be forgotten in a flash if Ireland manage to qualify for the 2016 Olympics Sevens.
Olympic Qualification
At the end of the the 2015 -16 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series you would have to say that Ireland are a long way behind Russia and Spain as favourites for qualifying for the Olympics at the Repêchage in Dublin on 25th and 26th June.
However the IRFU pulled out a Joker when they sent an Ireland Sevens Development Squad to the Amsterdam Sevens tournament this past weekend. Unsurprisingly the Ireland squad won the tournament, maybe not at the expected canter, but convincingly enough, the main bonus being that Naimh Briggs, the long standing stalwart of the 15s game, came through the tournament unscathed.
Briggs would certainly add play-maker and power to the existing Sevens squad and it looks like she, amongst others, may get the chance for inclusion in the Olympic panel with Ireland sending a team to the first leg of the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Grand Prix Tournament in Kazan, Russia, on June 11-12.
Russia, Spain and Ireland are using this as their last run out before the Repêchage so any changes to the existing set up will be viewed there first. The tournament will also feature two Great Britain sides, GB1 and GB2, as they make their final preparations for the Olympics.
By the “luck of the draw” Ireland have been placed in Russia’s group for the pool stages and my guess is that, whichever Ireland team makes the trip to central Russia, will be given a thorough working over by the hosts.
Individual Achievement
While the series may not have gone the way Ireland hoped, it must be remembered that representing your country on the world stage in any competition is a fantastic achievement. Congratulations to all the players who took part over the five tournaments.
The team did rack up 38 tries and 22 conversions throughout the series, the scorers as follows:
PLAYER
TRY
CON
PTS
Lucy Mulhall
9
22
89
Amee-Leigh Crowe
9
45
Alison Millar
7
35
Audrey O’Flynn
4
20
Louise Galvin
3
15
Hannah Tyrrell
2
10
Aoife Doyle
1
5
Stacey Flood
1
5
Claire Keohane
1
5
Sene Naoupu
1
5
Total
38
22
234
Our final act is to award our Player of the Series and here there is only one candidate, none other that Lucy Mulhall.
Mulhall took over the captaincy from the injured Louise Galvin and managed to maintain her personal form racking up nine tries and twenty two conversions for a personal tally of 89 points.
It was a mixed bag for Ireland Women’s Sevens on Day 2 of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont.
Corrections, comments or questions?