Ireland’s struggles in the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series continued in Hamilton, New Zealand with an 11th place finish.
The women’s team failed to win a pool match but finished the tournament with a win against Brazil in the 11th Place Play off.
We asked Ulster speedster Holly Brannigan to have a look at the matches as she recovers from injury and you can read Holly’s reports below.
Who did what?
It’s been a difficult season for the Women’s Sevens side and this is the third tournament they have finished in the bottom three.
They will have been particularly disappointed to have lost out to close rivals Spain and Brazil remain the only side they have defeated this season.
Their overall record for the four legs of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series are shown below.
Ireland Women 7s Win Record
(First Three Tournaments)
PLAYED | WON | WIN% | PF | PA | PD |
17 | 3 | 18% | 194 | 462 | (268) |
However, it’s fine margins in this game and it won’t take much to turn their season around.
In Hamilton, Ireland notched up 47 points with the following scorers.
- Lucy Mulhall 17 pts (1T 6C)
- Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe 10 pts (2T)
- Hannah Tyrrell 10 pts (2T)
- Megan Burns 5 pts (1T)
- Louise Galvin 5 pts (1T)
Plugging these into their World Series stats for this season we get the following.
PLAYER | CLUB | GAMES | TRIES | POINTS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe | Railway Union | 16 | 10 | 50 |
Eve Higgins | Railway Union | 17 | 4 | 40 |
Lucy Mulhall | Rathdrum | 9 | 1 | 29 |
Hannah Tyrrell | Old Belvedere | 17 | 5 | 25 |
Louise Galvin | UL Bohemian | 17 | 4 | 20 |
Megan Burns | Tullamore | 16 | 2 | 10 |
Emily Lane | Mallow | 17 | 1 | 5 |
Katie Fitzhenry | Blackrock | 17 | 1 | 5 |
Kathy Baker | Blackrock | 16 | 1 | 5 |
Anna Doyle | Tullow | 7 | 1 | 5 |
Brittany Hogan | DCU | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird | Old Belvedere | 10 | 0 | 0 |
Stacey Flood | Railway Union | 9 | 0 | 0 |
Claire Boles | Railway Union | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Katie Heffernan | Mullingar | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Anna McGann | Old Belvedere | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Lucinda Kinghan | DCU | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Onwards to Sydney
The same extended squad of 14 players will be competing in Sydney this weekend, though at the time of writing the match day squad of 12 has yet to be announced.
Extended Squad: Kathy Baker, Megan Burns, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Stacey Flood, Katie Fitzhenry, Louise Galvin, Eve Higgins, Brittany Hogan, Emily Lane, Anna McGann, Lucy Mulhall (C), Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird, Hannah Tyrrell.
I would expect the two unused players from Hamilton, Anna McGann and Lucinda Kinghan, to get some game time this tine round.
Ireland are once again drawn in Pool C where they will face rematches with France and Spain with Australia replacing Canada. Pool schedule below.
- Ireland v France – Saturday 1st February 12.20am UK/IRE
- Ireland v Australia – Saturday 1st February 5.36am UK/IRE
- Ireland v Spain – Saturday 1st February 11.13pm UK/IRE
- Play-offs and Finals – TBC.