THE WHEEL KEEPS turning, and while Leinster and Munster saw their campaigns come to a crashing halt on Saturday, a busy afternoon at the IRFU’s high performance centre serves as a timely reminder there’s plenty to play for across what’s left in the rugby season.
Over the past week the Ireland men’s and women’s Sevens players received the news that’s been hanging over their heads for months as the squads for the Paris Olympics were confirmed. The men’s team were told in-camp while the women had the option of one-on-one meetings or a phone call.
With the formalities out of the way it was back to business, and there were mixed emotions in Abbotstown yesterday as Monday’s announcement sank in. Yet as the two head coaches and a handful of Sevens players met the media to discuss their plans for Paris, the show carried on as usual around them.
Wait around a corridor in Abbotstown long enough and you never know who you might see. Just a few short hours before the IRFU confirmed Andy Farrell’s 35-man squad to tour South Africa next month, Mack Hansen strolls by in a vintage Manchester United shirt, the winger one of a half-dozen Connacht players ‘of national interest’ who has been working away in Dublin on the back of the province’s season ending in May.
Hugo Keenan is also on site as he continues his Olympic preparations with the men’s Sevens squad, while on the large indoor pitch, the women’s squad are in the middle of a session, with outgoing IRFU high performance director David Nucifora keeping watch.
The Sevens programme has been Nucifora’s baby and while other areas of Irish rugby would have liked to receive similar backing under his watch, the investment in Sevens has left Ireland with two squads capable of medaling in Paris this summer. The men’s tournament takes place on 24, 25 and 27 July, with the women’s set for 28, 29 and 30 July.
And for all the work that’s gone into the programme, nothing would boost the profile of Sevens in Ireland more than Olympic glory.
During his press duties men’s head coach James Topping jokes “I never see you guys [the media]“, but for a few days in late July his squad will find themselves under the full glare of the Olympic spotlight.
“We never play at home,” says Topping. “Nobody really sees us apart from maybe whatever the IRFU do on the social media. It’s pretty low key.
But it’s amazing for these guys to get a bit of an exposure and recognition at home here in the media as well, because we’ve got what I believe is probably four or five of the best players in the world in our team, and they are guys who have stuck at it.
“They’ve maybe been through an Academy system and not made it, they’ve had to deal with that disappointment but they haven’t given up, they stuck back in, they’ve given themselves a new direction and they’ve proven what they can do against some of the other so-called established nations in Sevens and the best players in the world.”
The men’s squad aren’t shy about admitting they will be shooting for gold at the Games, and that ambition is built on strong foundations. Topping’s side have just come off an excellent season, recording their best-ever finish by claiming second place in the SVNS table, while former Sevens stars Keenan and Andrew Smith have returned to lend their weight to Ireland’s gold medal charge.
With squads for Paris cut to 12 [it was 13 for the Tokyo Games], the arrival of Keenan and Smith put more pressure on the selection squeeze. Billy Dardis, captain in Tokyo three years ago, is among those to miss out this time around, yet is still training with the group. Harry McNulty will captain an experienced Ireland squad, with seven of the 12-man selection set to compete at their second Games – where they will look to improve on their showing in Tokyo, where they lost a ninth-place playoff 22-0 to Kenya.
Leinster fullback Keenan played for the Ireland Sevens from 2017 until 2019 while Smith was part of the Sevens programme since 2021 before signing for Connacht last summer. The pair bring quality and experience but Topping acknowledges their reintroduction carried a risk of upsetting a squad who had fought hard together to secure their Olympic qualification last summer.
“Probably my biggest worry was would it disrupt the team dynamic? Would there be a bit of pushback from players?”
“I had no doubt around the attitude and the competence of those two players in playing Sevens, but my concern was there had been guys going well this year, we’d made every quarter-final, past that, in the World Series and got lots of medals this year. No golds, unfortunately.
“So there was that thought of ‘Will there be push back from a lot of players?’ There wasn’t, which is one thing. And then there is the thought that listen, if an international player like Hugo Keenan comes up to you and says, ‘I’ll give this a go,’ it’s very hard for me to say ‘No, I don’t want to give you a chance of going to the Olympics.’”
Talks with Keenan began earlier this season after Nucifora gave the green light for the Sevens programme to take one player from each of the four provinces. The 28-year-old was keen to get involved, and after returning to Dublin from Leinster’s Champions Cup final loss to Toulouse in May he jumped on a 6am flight to join the group for the World Series event in Madrid – removing himself from Leinster’s URC run-in.
Like Keenan, Robert Baloucoune was an obvious target given his previous Sevens experience but Topping says the Ulster winger was never a live possibility as he focused on getting back to full fitness with his province.
The women’s programme went through a similar talent search, ultimately leading to a different ending. Vikki Wall was a high-profile recruit last summer, with the former Meath GAA and AFWL star making her Sevens debut in January. There was much excitement about Wall’s potential but the 26-year-old didn’t make the final cut for Paris, and was training as usual in Abbotstown yesterday while some of her more fortunate teammates met the media to discuss their Olympic dreams.
Allan Temple-Jones admits delivering such news is one of the harder parts of his remit as women’s head coach, adding that Wall’s Sevens journey isn’t necessarily over as a result of this setback.
“It is a massive task for anyone to transfer between sports,” says Temple-Jones.
“It just shows she’s been able to do it between Gaelic and AFL and she’s done it very successfully for us this year.
“So, credit to her, she’s thrown herself massively into it. It’s a massive task for anyone to come in and she’s done really well. She’s had numerous opportunities on the World Series so she’s done really well and we still looking forward to working with her moving forward. For us, as a programme and moving forward, we’ve still got Los Angeles in 2028 so by no means is this for us the end of the line.”
Back in January, the women’s squad enjoyed the high of winning a series leg [Perth] for the first time but have struggled to reach the same levels since. Still, there is a sense of optimism about their prospects as they prepare to become the first Ireland women’s Sevens team to compete at an Olympics.
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Stacey Flood, Béibhinn Parsons and Eve Higgins are among the anchors of the women’s squad, which will be captained by Lucy Rock [formerly Mulhall].
“This group has shown what they can do,” adds Temple-Jones.
“We’ve got high aspirations. We’re using Perth as a big flag for us. We know that if we go there and we’re as good as we can be. We can definitely compete. We’ve got to make sure we come there and rock and roll.
“If you shoot for a medal, often you miss but we want to go there with high ambition and be prepared as we can to shoot for a gold medal. It’s capable, we know this group can do it so we’re looking forward to the opportunity to put our best foot forward.”
After years of work, the last week of July is quickly coming into view.
