The Irish Men’s Rugby Sevens team have tonight beaten Great Britain 26-12 to win gold, and secure all important Olympic qualification, at the European Games in Krakow, Poland.
They become the seventh team to qualify for Paris 2024, joining hosts France, New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Australia and Uruguay, with the remaining six spots to be determined by regional qualifying tournaments and next year’s World Rugby Repechage.
Ireland’s Women have already qualified, the first time in history that a team sport from Ireland has qualified Men’s and Women’s teams for an Olympic Games.
Billy Dardis, World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year; Terry Kennedy, and Jordan Conroy (2) all crossed for Ireland, completing an unbeaten tournament for the Harry McNulty-led side.
Ireland were in clinical form to progress through to the knockout stages as Pool A winners, defeating Poland, Italy and German before overcoming Belgium in the quarter-finals and Portugal in the last four earlier yesterday.
“I can’t put it into words. Just the effort from everybody involved; teammates, backroom staff, everyone at home that didn’t get the opportunity to come over and play here, the travelling support – I think there was nearly more Irish than Polish here at one stage,” said McNulty.
“It’s fantastic, it’s something that we’ve been working on for so long. Basically the last two seasons have merged into one because Covid pushed a couple of tournaments so it’s been like a way way longer season than we’re used to, and we just had to keep digging in and working hard for eachother, and to get the result is fantastic.”
“It means the men and the women are both going to Paris with a full year run at it. First time at it both going to the Olympic Games together; it’s so fantastic. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it! For both sides of the programme I couldn’t be more happy.”
“Sevens is an extremely difficult way to qualify, if you don’t come through the main season you go to the regionals and currently Europe is the toughest, so it was never going to be easy.”
“It’s funny, when I wake up I never really remember a dream; it’s just a blackout. Six or ten times this year I’ve had a dream and each time it was about winning this game, and I’m dead serious when I say that. I have been dreaming that for the last six months to a year in the lead up to this so I’m glad it’s now a reality.”
Boxing
Continuing their brilliant performances at these Games all three Irish boxers; Daina Moorhouse, Michaela Walsh, and Aoife O’Rourke, won their last 16 bouts this evening, to advance to the quarter-finals, where a place in Paris is on the line.
No less than nine Irish boxers will contest quarter-finals at the Nowy Targ Arena tomorrow, with Olympic qualification spots the prize for the winners of seven of those bouts.
Badminton
In Badminton all the Irish players saw action again in the second round matches in their groups with wins in three of the five matches; Rachael Darragh in the Women’s Singles, Nhat Nyeung in the Men’s Singles, and pairing Joshua Magee and Moya Ryan in the Mixed Doubles.
Other Sports
In Triathlon it’s the turn of James Edgar in the Elite Men’s race in the morning.
In Fencing Ireland’s Men’s Sabre team of Jadryn Dick, Michael Jacob, and Michalis Kirimlidis take on Spain in the Table of 16 encounter.
Finally, Diver Clare Cryan goes in the 1M Springboard qualifying round in the morning, hopeful of making the evening final.
