THE JOY OF cutting loose at the Olympics and showing their true class was tempered for Ireland by the tearful devastation of their captain, Lucy Mulhall Rock, as she limped off injured.
A 38-0 hammering of South Africa showed what this group of Irish women can do on the big stage, but losing their inspirational skipper counts as a serious toll for the toil.
The day started in worrying fashion for Ireland as they failed to fire on their Olympic debut against Great Britain, losing 21-12.
Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe seemed unperturbed by the occasion as she scored two tries but you had to think there were Irish nerves involved in the collective underperformance. It was a bad start and immediately left Allan Temple-Jones’ side in chasing mode but they recovered impressively against South Africa.
22-year-old flyer Béibhinn Parsons showed her athleticism in scoring a brace as well as earning her second jackal turnover in two games, Murphy Crowe struck again, and the likes of Stacey Flood and the creative Megan Burns carved up the South African defence.
There was the deep satisfaction of not conceding and though the sight of Mulhall Rock crying as she left the pitch was jarring, Eve Higgins made a good impact after replacing the captain.
That was an enforced change for Ireland in the first half but they used their bench better in the South Africa game. After Temple-Jones had made only two changes during the defeat to Great Britain, Ireland used all five replacements in the win over South Africa.
Ireland will need lots more of the good stuff from that six-try win if they’re to make a dent in this Olympics tomorrow.
They face a demanding task in their final pool game at 1.30pm Irish time tomorrow as they take on Australia, who showed their class all season on the World SVNS Series as they won three legs including the Grand Final in Madrid.
Inspired by the scintillating Levi sisters, 22-year-old Maddison [who scored seven tries in two games today] and 20-year-old Teagan, and captained by the classy Charlotte Caslick, the Australian squad is stacked with rugby brilliance. They recorded strong wins over Great Britain and South Africa today and many people have them down as the overall competition favourites.
Ireland have beaten them before, sensationally edging the Aussies in the final of the Perth 7s back in January to earn their first-ever World Series leg success. The performances that weekend in Australia underlined just how talented this Irish group is.
They didn’t manage to finish higher than fifth in any of the other SVNS legs during the season but when they’re hot, they’re difficult to stop.
A win over Australia tomorrow would rock the competition and it’s not beyond Ireland.
Even if they lose to the Aussies, there’s a good chance Temple-Jones’ side will go through to the quarter-finals of the Olympics tomorrow evening.
Barring a gigantic win for one of Brazil or Japan in their Pool C clash tomorrow, Ireland would probably go through as one of the two best third-placed teams even if they lost to Australia.
In that scenario, Ireland would be likely to have a quarter-final against New Zealand, who looked excellent today in their wins over China and Canada, or against the Australians.
New Zealand are the defending Olympic champions and finished top of the SVNS table this season. Their squad is also stuffed with world-class rugby players so it would be an extremely demanding quarter-final.
But let’s not forget that in the men’s competition, South Africa scraped out of the pool stages after just one win, were the lowest-ranked quarter-finalists, and ended up with bronze medals.
There’s so much to play for tomorrow following a brilliant opening day of the women’s competition when the 66,000 crowd at Stade de France set a new record for a women’s rugby event.
Australia and New Zealand dazzled to confirm their quarter-final spots, while hosts France and a powerful US side also qualified with two impressive wins from two.
There was a stunning shock win for China against Fiji, the bronze medallists from the last Olympics.
And Ireland showed a better version of themselves in that win over South Africa.
Now they need to find the very finest version of themselves ahead of a massive day two.
The semi-finals and final will take place in Paris on Tuesday and Ireland’s hopes of featuring are still alive.
