Ireland Women’s Sevens captain Lucy Mulhall says her team are looking forward to ‘a big year of rugby’ after they qualified as a core team for the 2015/16 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series.
It has been a summer of real progress for the Ireland Women under the guidance of head coach , culminating in their 26-14 Cup semi-final win over South Africa at the Women’s Sevens Dublin tournament today – a result that booked their World Series spot. Despite falling at the final hurdle to fellow WSWS qualifiers Japan, who triumphed 13-12 at UCD thanks to a last-gasp penalty, Ireland can look back on a momentum-building campaign.
They won Plate titles at both of the European Grand Prix Series events in Kazan and Malemort, finished as runners-up in Lisbon as they qualified for next June’s global Olympic Repechage tournament and thanks to their efforts in Dublin, are now back at the top table of international Women’s Sevens for only the second time.
Ireland previously competed on the World Series circuit in 2013/14, and playing the likes of defending champions New Zealand, Canada, Australia, England, USA, France, Russia, Fiji and Spain and Japan on a regular basis this coming season will be ideal preparation for that Olympic Repechage.
Speaking about Ireland’s World Series qualification, captain Lucy Mulhall commented: “It is everything that we’ve ever wanted, last year was a very difficult year being off the World Series and we set sights on August and this tournament in qualifying.
“I think playing against the top teams is the best way that you can learn and you learn so much quicker than you could ever learn on the training fields. It’s going to be a big year of rugby for us and we’re very excited.”
Learn more about Womens’ 7’s from Jenny Murphy here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV8eoHJy_gk&list=PLBu_-Eub-VRJIfauo4N0Y6WNNrmd0mcls&index=11
