International 7s Women: Ireland return to competitive rugby.

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by

John McMurtry

The Red Bull International Rugby 7s tournament was held at at the national football centre, St. George’s Park, Burton upon Trent, between 15-17 May.

the tournament was organised by the RFU to give Team GB some much needed game time as they try to establish some sort of familiarity amongst their players, from across GB, ahead of the Olympics in July. France, who have the Olympic Repechage coming up at the end of June, used the tournament to test the depth of their squad.

Ireland who have no competitive fixtures in the current schedule would have been happy to get some game time, after a year without, though they may be disappointed with a 25% win return despite starting their experienced players in most of the games.

Results

Saturday 15th May 2021
Ireland 12–14France
Team GB29–21Ireland
Team GB24–26France
International Rugby 7s Women Day 1 Results
Sunday 16th May 2021
Ireland 24–7France
Team GB26–7Ireland
Team GB12–26France
International Rugby 7s Women Day 2 Results
MONday 17th May 2021
Ireland 5–42France
Team GB19–19Ireland
Team GB33–7France
International Rugby 7s Women Day 3 Results

Standings

TeamPWDPDPTS
France6401214
Team GB6313713
Ireland611(49)9

Who did what?

Beyond game time it’s difficult to say what coach was looking to get out of this competition. With nothing to play for in the foreseeable future, and as good as a bye announced today for qualification for the 2022 Sevens World Cup, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to look at the depth of the squad.

Instead, all the dual internationals from the Six Nations made a re-appearance, along with the 7s regulars, and those that travelled in hope rather than expectation were restricted to starts in 1 game.

Appearances

Given that the tournament was pulled together in short order, and that a quarter of the players didn’t have numbers on their shirts, we’ve pulled together our best estimate of who was involved in each game based on displayed team sheets, when available.

In M4 definitely made an appearance in the second half despite not being on that game’s team sheet and in M6 no team sheet was available.

The players used over the tournament are shown below and we have ranked them by their appearances over the three days – 2 points for a starting appearance (S) and one point for a replacement appearance (R)

PLAYERCLUBM1M2M3M4M5M6**RANK
Murphy-Crowe, Amee LeighRailway UnionSSSSRS11
Higgins, EveRailway UnionSSSSRS11
Burns, MeganTullamoreSRSSRS10
Hogan, BrittanyOld BelvedereSSSSS10
Mulhall, LucyRathdrumSSSSS10
Lane, EmilyBlackrockSRSSS9
Flood, StaceyRailway UnionSSSR*S9
Boles, ClaireRailway UnionRRRRSR7
Heffernan, KatieRailway UnionRSSRR7
Farrell McCabe, KatieSuttoniansRRRRSR7
Nic a Bhaird, DeirbhileOld BelvedereRRRRSR7
Fitzhenry, KatieBlackrockSRSR6
Moore, GraceRailway UnionRRS4
Reilly, AoibheannBlackrockRRS4
Deely, MéabhBalckrockS2
Liston, MaeveBalckrockR1
* Player not on team sheet but definitely played. ** No team sheet available hopefully got all the players!

Old Belvedere’s ranked the highest of the Ulster players, starting in five out of six games. appeared in all six squads but was only in the starting team once and had to make do with one appearance as a replacement.

Points Scored

Ireland scored 88 points, the points coming from 14 tries and 9 conversions giving a conversion rate of 64%. The Ireland scorers are shown below.

PLAYERCLUBM1M2M3M4M5M6PTS
Mulhall, LucyRathdrum1C2T, 3C2C1C1T, 2C33
Murphy-Crowe, Amee LeighRailway Union2T1T2T1T30
Burns, MeganTullamore1T5
Flood, StaceyRailway Union1T5
Higgins, EveRailway Union1T5
Lane, EmilyBlackrock1T5
Moore, GraceRailway Union1T5
TOTAL–122124751988

Sevens stalwarts and accounted for 75% of the points scored between them.

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