THE IRELAND RUGBY Sevens finished their Olympic campaign with a loss, going down 22-0 to Kenya in their play-off for 9th/10th place.
It was a disappointing end for Anthony Eddy’s side and some sort of revenge for Kenya who were beaten by the Irish outfit in the pool stage yesterday.
Willy Ambaka, Jacob Ojee, Johnstone Olindi, Daniel Taabu all got on the scoresheet for what was the last game for Kenya captain Andrew Amonde. Once again, it was an inaccurate Irish performance. They struggled to get any forward momentum and their attack faltered.
Ireland were beaten 19-17 by the USA in their second Pool C outing yesterday following their opening 33-14 defeat to South Africa. Their final pool game against Kenya ended in a 12-7 victory.
“We are absolutely gutted. We spoke about before the match bringing that doggedness in defence and we did that so well but our attack just let us down. Normally our attack looks after itself but out there far too many errors to get the win we needed.
“We obviously needed to win by eight or more and it just didn’t happen for us,” said a downcast Terry Kennedy after that result.
They went on to secure a 31-0 win over South Korea before today’s conclusion.
I’m proud of the team. They earned their spot at the top table of their sport. Well done. Feck the begrudgers sitting on their behinds at home.
Very disappointing. This was a great opportunity to put 7’s on the map in Ireland but missed that chance.
@kieran horgan: very harsh. I enjoyed watching them. Their first Olympics, I thought they did well to finish in the top 10. Yeah they missed a great opppertunity against Kenya fist time round, but that’s sport. rugby fans in general will take to this new 7s team. Fair play to them!
They strike me as a group who’ve lived their dream in getting to the Olympics (and had a great time doing it). Hopefully some of them go on to represent Ireland in Rugby Union and perhaps get a top 4 finish at a world Cup.
That’s embarrassing
@Pat Andrews: You be embarrassed if you want to Pat. 7s is a new sport in Ireland and a developmental game where those who fo not make the professional grade at 15 man rugby still have a pathway to keep them in the game. 10th in the world is still an achievement.
@Pat Andrews: Kenya have played in the 7s world cup final before and Ireland have not so don’t see how this is embarrassing. If there is one nationality with the fitness and speed to cover a full pitch with 7 players, you definitely be looking at Kenya as one of them.