The Ireland Women’s 7s squad has been announced for the France leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series which takes place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday .
Why is this important?
Ireland Women have all but secured a top eight finish in the World Rugby Sevens Series and they have an outside chance of finishing in the top six so they have ticked the boxes for next season as far as that competition is concerned.
With the European Olympic Qualification tournament coming up on 13th and 14th July in Kazan, Russia, they will shortly start to focus on that competition and they will want to go into the European Rugby Series of tournaments on a high.
They have been drawn in Pool B where they face, top four sides, Canada and Australia. Both these sides have already qualified for the Olympics so Ireland will be keen to test themselves against them. The other side in Pool B is Spain, who will also be competing in the European Qualifying tournament, so Ireland will want to maintain their recent series of good results against the Spanish.
When do they play?
Ireland’s Pool matches take place on Saturday 15th June at Parc Des Sports Aguilera, Biarritz. Kick off times as follows:
Australia v Ireland 11:52 UK/IRE
Canada v Ireland 14:14 UK/IRE
Spain v Ireland 16:58 UK/IRE
The matches will be live streamed on various World Rugby Sevens Online Channels.
What’s the Ulster involvement?
There are two Ulster players involved, Brittany Hogan and Claire Boles who will be appearing together in their third successive tournament.
Boles missed a couple of tournaments at the start of the year due to her involvement with the Six Nations squad but Hogan has been an ever present since the Dubai Series.
Speaking to The FRU earlier today Hogan confirmed that the Olympic qualifiers are not far from their thoughts:
“It’s the end of a long season that has involved mixed performances for the squad with a high in Sydney and a low last time out in Langford.
We will be looking to improve on our last outing and with the Olympic qualification competition taking place in July, there is still a lot of work to be done after our World Series campaign ends this weekend.
However, we want to end the series on a high and, we are all excited, focused and looking forward to our first challenge this weekend in Biarritz”
Who else in in the Squad?
Kathy Baker and Stacy Flood come into the squad which will be captained by, leading try scorer, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe for the second tournament in succession.
Baker will make her first World Series appearances this season and Flood makes a welcome return to the squad after an extended injury period.
The full squad, together with their World Series Sevens experience, is shown below.
Ireland Women 7s Squad for
Biarritz
|
All Time Stats | 2019 Stats | ||||
PLD | PTS | TRY | PLD | PTS | TRY | |
Kathy Baker | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Claire Boles | 30 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
Megan Burns | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
Aoife Doyle | 53 | 45 | 9 | 24 | 25 | 5 |
Stacy Flood | 90 | 120 | 24 | 9 | 10 | 2 |
Louise Galvin | 70 | 90 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 4 |
Eve Higgins | 53 | 97 | 17 | 29 | 82 | 0 |
Brittany Hogan | 21 | 5 | 1 | 21 | 5 | 1 |
Emily Lane | 16 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 5 | 1 |
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe | 107 | 400 | 80 | 28 | 155 | 31 |
Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird | 46 | 25 | 5 | 27 | 15 | 3 |
Hannah Tyrrell | 78 | 72 | 14 | 23 | 42 | 8 |
Corrections, comments or questions?