Ireland Women 7s  finished up as fourth seeds for the Rugby Europe Olympic qualifying tournament in Kazan, Russia, on 13 – 14 July after a win and two defeats on Day 2 of the Grand Prix tournament at Marcoussis, France. 

Ireland kicked off Day 2 with a win against England (24 – 19) before losing out to France (12 – 14) in the Cup semi final. A much reduced squad went on to lose to Spain (0 – 19) in the third place play off. 

You can view their Day 1 results here

It was a tournament that “probably” ticked most of the boxes as far as Ireland were concerned, though a few of the sides kept a card or two up their sleeves ahead of those all important Olympic qualifiers in a couple of weeks time. 

With regards to the qualifiers, the main players are going to be France, Russia, Spain, Ireland and England and Ireland will be reasonably satisfied that they recorded wins against England and Spain (in Day 1) and pushed France all the way in that match.

They did, of course, lose to Spain in Day 2 and in both games of that mini series I think it would be fair to say that both of the losing sides were less than committed, opting to keep their powder dry for bigger games to come!

The match details and scorers are shown below. 

Ireland will have left the tournament reasonably satisfied with their fourth place finish. The only worry is their conversion rate, which at 35% is the worst, by some margin, across the top six sides. It cost them against France and it does need improving. 

However, they did confirm that they are genuine contenders for the Olympic qualifiers in a couple of weeks time in what should be an exciting tournament. 

Ireland Women 7s Squad Points Scored

PLAYER	ESP	ITA	SCO	ENG	FRA	ESP	TOTAL
Kathy Barker							0
Megan Burns		5					5
Stacy Flood				5			5
Louise Galvin		5					5
Eve Higgins		2		7	5		14
Brittany Hogan			5				5
Emily Lane							0
Lucy Mulhall		4	7	2	2		15
Anna McGann							0
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe	5	5	10	10	5		35
Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird	10						10
Hannah Tyrrell		20					20
TOTAL	15	41	22	24	12	0	114

Rugby Europe Grand Prix – Final Rankings

RANK	PL	W	PTS
1 – FRANCE	6	6	18
2 – RUSSIA	6	5	16
3 – SPAIN	6	4	14
4 – IRELAND	6	4	14
5 – ENGLAND	6	4	14
6 – SCOTLAND	6	2	10
7 – POLAND	6	2	10
8 – BELGIUM	6	2	10
9 – ITALY	5	2	9
10 – WALES	5	2	9
11 – NETHERLANDS	5	1	7
12 – UKRAINE	5	0	5

Note: England, Scotland and Wales are represented under Team GB for the Olympics so the teams going forward to the Olympic qualifiers are as follows – France, Russia, Spain, Ireland, England/Team GB, Poland, Belgium, Italy and Netherlands.