Ireland Women continued to struggle on Day 2 of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Langford, Canada a second win against Japan their only success of the day. 

Having dropped into the Bowl play-off after Day 1 Ireland opened Day 2 with a semi-final match against Brazil. 

Ireland started well with Audrey O’Flynn opening the scoring but Brazil’s Santini hit back to level the game at the break. 

Brazil enjoyed the better of the second half and when Sene Naoupu was yellow carded for a high tackle the Olympic hosts crossed twice in the dying minutes. A fantastic intervention by Lucy Mulhall denied the Brazilians first time round but Sarda made no mistake second time round to give the Olympic hosts a 10 – 5 win.

In the play off to avoid bottom place Ireland restored some pride with a second win against Japan. 

Taniguchiwas the first to score with Japan dominating the opening minutes but Claire Keohane hit back almost immediately with a fine individual effort straight from the re-start. 

The teams turned round with honours even but an early score from Amee-Leigh Crowe, converted by Lucy Mulhall, was enough for Ireland to secure the win despite a late flourish from the Japanese  who were unfortunate to have a late try disallowed. Final score Ireland 12 Japan 5. 

Ireland Women Sevens: Katie Fitzhenry, Kim Flood, Stacey Flood, Shannon Houston, Claire Keohane, Alison Miller, Lucy Mulhall, Amee-Leigh Crowe,  Sene Naoupu, Audrey O’Flynn, Hannah Tyrrell, Megan Williams. 

Olympic Qualification

It was all a bit of a step back for the Irish players this tournament, particularly against their rivals for Olympic Qualification, Spain and Russia. 

The Russians left some of their big names on the bench for much of this tournament but still managed an eighth place finish despite a disappointing second day. 

Spain enjoyed their best finish to date this season beating USA twice en-route to the Plate Final against hosts Canada. The ten points secured by the Spanish puts some daylight between themselves and Ireland in the overall standings. 

After four rounds Russia are in 6^th place with 38 points, Spain 9^th with 20 points and Ireland 12^th with 8 points. 

In fairness to Ireland, things can change pretty quickly in the sevens game as can be seen by the changes to points secured by Spain and Russia over the first four rounds:

However, Ireland will need to get out of their pool and into the quarter-finals in the final round in France at the end of May if they are to put any doubt into the competition’s mind come the Olympic Repêchage in June.