It was an unlucky finish to the 2024 Olympics for the Irish Men, loosing two out of the three knock-out games. The Irish men finished 6th across the tournament.
Match 23: Fiji 19 Ireland 15
The next match for Ireland was the quarter finals against the reigning Olympic champions, Fiji! Iosefo Baleiwairki opened up the scoring in the first 30 seconds with Iowane Taba adding the conversion for a 7 – 0 lead. Chay Mullins answered back with two unconverted tries to give Ireland a 7 – 10 lead at the end of the first period.
Zac Ward, who has been very impressive in the tournament so far, crossed early in the second half for his third Olympic try to push the score to 7 – 15. However, the missed conversions proved costly as Fiji’s Joji Nasova scored an excellent try, running the length of the pitch and Waisea Nacuqu scored the game winning try, Terio Tamani Veilawa‘s conversion giving a final score of 19 – 15 in Fiji’s favour.
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Match 26: Ireland 17 USA 14
Following the defat to Fiji Ireland dropped to the 5th Place Play Off where they faces the USA at the semi final stage.
Hugo Lenox crossed for a try in the opening 30 seconds and the same player knocked over the conversion for a 7 – 0 lead. The USA Responded with a last minute try from Aaron Cummings and Steve Tomasin‘s conversion tied the game at 7 – 7 as the teams changed ends.
Veteran Perry Baker crossed 4 minutes in to the second half and Tomasin’s conversion put the USA 7 – 14 in front. both landing under the posts.
Ireland hit back at the death with Zac Ward crossing before Terry Kennedy sneaked over with the last play to give Ireland a 17 – 14 win.
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Match 32: New Zealand 17 Ireland 7
Ireland and New Zealand met once again, this time to decide which team would finish in fifth place.
New Zealand’s Leroy Carter opened the scoring after 2 minutes for a 5 – 0 lead but Ireland worked overtime to tie the game in extended play with a Chay Mullins try and the took a 5 – 7 lead into the second half after Mark Roche added the conversion.
New Zealand dominated the second half and tries from Brady Rush and Moses Leo, the latter converted by Andrew Knewstubb, gave New Zealand a 17 – 7 win with something to spare.
