Whatever way you look at it the results from Dubai in both the Women’s and the Men’s Sevens competitions must be seen as a disappointment, particularly in the case of Ireland Women.

I was looking for a 9th place finish for the Women and a top two finish for the Men but, despite a win against the USA in their opening game, Ireland Women had a dreadful tournament ending up in last place, losing a huge amount of ground to 2nd place Russia and 8th place Spain who they will face in the Olympic Repêchage in June 2016.

Ireland Men did finish 3rd overall, so only one place off the expected top two finish. However given that the level of the International Invitational is so far below that of the World Series that one place slip is fairly significant. In fairness,  margins are tight and the only real disappointment was their 19 – 0 defeat by Apache in their second game as subsequent results indicated that it was a game they should have won.

The knock on effect of that loss put them up against, eventual winners, Samurai International in the semi finals whereas I wasn’t expecting them to play the top side until the final.

Ireland Women Results

Pool	USA	05 – 12	Ireland
Pool	Canada	17 – 07	Ireland
Pool	Fuji	27 – 10	Ireland
Semi Final	Ireland	07 – 29	Brazil
11th Place	Ireland	24 – 31	USA

Ireland Men Results

Pool	Belgium 7’s	00 – 36	Ireland
Pool	Apache	19 – 00	Ireland
Quarter Final	Georgia 7’s	07 – 20	Ireland
Semi Final	Samuari	26 – 12	Ireland
3rd Place	Ireland	12 – 10	France Dev

Ireland teams at Dubai Sevens

Ireland Women	Ireland Men
Ashleigh Baxter*	Adam Byrne
Megan Williams	Aaron Cairns*
Sene Naoupu	Tom Daly
Claire Keohane	Barry Daly
Stacey Flood	Dan Goggin
Lucy Mulhall	Foster Horan
Eimear Considine	Terry Kennedy
Louise Galvin	Gearoid Lyons
Amee-Leigh Crowe	David McGuigan*
Alison Miller	Rory O’Loughlin
Audrey O’Flynn	Nick Timoney*
Katie Fitzhenry	Steve Toal-Lennon