The Front Row Union Sport - Women: Ireland Struggle in Sao Paulo

Women: Ireland Struggle in Sao Paulo

Feb 22, 2016

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FRU 10 Year Logo Ireland Women’s Sevens team’s campaign for Olympic qualification received a huge knock following their performance in the HBSC World Sevens Series in Sao Paulo.

The team failed to record a single win in five games but perhaps more worryingly they only recorded three tries in the competition with Alison Miller (2) and Lucy Mulhall the only scorers.

Defeats to Canada (26 – 7), Australia (19 – 5) and Fiji (15 – 7) in day one left Ireland in a scrap for ranking points in the bottom four in day 2. Interestingly, results saw the Irish girls face, their main rivals for Olympic Qualification, Russia and then Spain in the final day.

A convincing 15 – 0 win by Russia follows by an equally convincing 19 – 0 win by Spain only served to highlight the scale of the task the girls have before them if they are to appear in Rio in August.

After two rounds in the HBSC World Series Ireland are now firmly rooted in 12th place with two points.

TEAM	DUB	BRA	USA	CAN	PTS
AUSTRALIA 7S	20	20	–	–	40
NEW ZEALAND 7S	12	16	–	–	28
CANADA 7S	10	18	–	–	28
FRANCE 7S	14	12	–	–	26
ENGLAND 7S	16	8	–	–	24
RUSSIA 7S	18	4	–	–	22
FIJI 7S	8	10	–	–	18
USA 7S	2	14	–	–	16
BRAZIL 7S	3	6	–	–	9
SPAIN 7S	6	2	–	–	8
JAPAN 7S	4	3	–	–	7
IRELAND 7S	1	1	–	–	2

I watched quite a bit of this competition over the weekend and it seems fairly obvious that Ireland, compared to the other teams, are pretty one dimensional with all the players within a tight band of similar skill sets and build.

They were pretty much bossed at the breakdown by all their opponents and lack the physical attributes of a couple of big fast forwards to help them maintain possession. Same players tend to deliver the same moves and it appeared in this competition at least, that their cards were well and truly marked.

Certainly Ireland will need to mix things up a bit more if they are to take advantage of the Olympic Repêchage taking place at the UCD Bowl, Dublin on the 25th – 26th June 2016 .

Ireland Women: Ashleigh Baxter, Eimear Considine, Katie Fitzhenry, Stacey Flood, Louise Galvin, Shannon Houston, Claire Keohane, Alison Miller, Lucy Mulhall, Amee Leigh Murphy-Crowe, Audrey O’Flynn, Megan Williams.