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 . . .
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