The Offload: Ireland Women’s Sevens have one more shot at Olympic qualification

The Ireland Women’s Sevens squad’s quest for an automatic qualification place at next year’s Olympics in Paris will go down to the final tournament on the World Sevens Series in Toulouse from May 12th-14th.

The Irish women endured a disappointing tournament in Hong Kong over the weekend, finishing eighth while two of their rivals for that Olympic spot, Great Britain and Fiji, finished third and fourth respectively.

There are four automatic qualification in addition to the one assigned to hosts France. Ireland currently lie fifth – France are fourth – on 64 points, Fiji are sixth (62) and GB seventh (60). The top three nations – New Zealand, Australia and the USA – have already secured qualification.

There are 20 points available for winning a Sevens World Series tournament, 18 for silver medal place, 16 for bronze, 14 for fourth, 12 for fifth, 10 for sixth, all the way down to two points for 12th place.

The Counter Ruck: the rugby newsletter from The Irish Times

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South African Allan Temple Jones took over from Aiden McNulty as head coach of the women’s team, returning from working with the Sharks rugby franchise, having previously been head of athletic performance with the Irish Sevens from 2017-2022. He was the strength and conditioning coach with the Blitz Bokke for 10 years before that.

In Hong Kong Ireland lost to Fiji and Australia but, by beating Brazil 34-0, they qualified for the Cup quarterfinals. Unfortunately, they lost their three remaining games to Australia (24-5) again, France (26-14) and the USA (15-14).

James Topping’s men’s squad missed out on a cup quarter-final place in Hong Kong but three straight victories against Canada (17-0), Uruguay (31-7) and Samoa (19-17) saw them finish ninth. Ireland are currently in ninth place in the standings, 10 points off an automatic qualification place, albeit with two tournaments remaining, in Toulouse and London.

A sad but salutary story

David Walsh’s superb interview in the Sunday Times newspaper with the family of Fergus Slattery, one of Irish rugby’s true greats, is fundamentally sad but sensitively handled by the writer and courageously told by Fergus’ wife, Margot, son Cameron and daughter Nikki, who recount the former openside flanker’s battle with neurodegenerative disease.

Capped 61 times by Ireland and a former captain, he was a Lion in 1971, when the tourists beat New Zealand 2-1 for the first time in a Test series and again in 1974, a member of Willie John McBride’s, ‘Invincibles,’ who didn’t lose a match in South Africa, winning three of the four Tests and drawing the other. He also played in the Barbarians’ famous victory over the All Blacks in 1973.

The 74-year-old Slattery’s story is salutary for rugby, particularly in the light of current litigation in relation to brain trauma and playing the sport. He was diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia about four years ago.

With the support of his family, he agreed to a rigorous examination by a research team at Trinity College led by Professor Colin Doherty, who explained that it is only after Slattery passes away and his brain is examined that they might be able to definitively establish if they can link his dementia directly to playing rugby.

Doherty said: “I am a doctor, not a mathematician, I cannot write an equation that proves it’s down to rugby. But if you’re asking my expert opinion, if I am called to the stand, I’m going to say, ‘Absolutely.’” Upon his death the Slattery family will donate Fergus’ brain to the Trinity Research group.

Old boys and new coaches

St Michael’s College have been lavish contributors to the Leinster squad in recent years, producing a litany of talented young players that have gone on to play for their province and country.

There were seven alumni playing for Leinster in their Heineken Champions Cup victory over Ulster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening. James Ryan captained the team from secondrow, where he was joined by Ross Molony.

Ryan Baird, arguably the game’s outstanding player, wore the number six jersey while Ross Byrne neatly fulfilled the role of playmaking outhalf in the absence of Johnny Sexton. There were a further three Michael’s old boys on the bench, Scott Penny, scrumhalf Luke McGrath and Harry Byrne, younger brother of Ross.

Rory O’Loughlin, another ex-Michael’s pupil, started for Exeter Chiefs in their extra time 33-33 draw with Montpellier that saw them advance to the last eight of the tournament.

Andy Skehan and Emmet McMahon have overseen the development of many of those players during their time at the school but Michael’s are going to have to find new coaches at senior level.

Skehan is to take up a coaching opportunity in Brazil and leaves during the Easter break while McMahon is set to take up a position at UCD rugby club at the end of the school year. They are big boots to fill for their successors.

By the Numbers: 27,000

The initial restricted capacity for Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup quarterfinal against the Leicester Tigers at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night, unless the demand for tickets exceeds that number.

Word of Mouth

“Luckily, we have experience in our coaching staff. Yannick Bru was involved with Toulouse when they won the European Cup and also Noel McNamara was part of the academy at Leinster and understands how much emphasis those teams put on the Champions Cup.” Sharks director of rugby, Neil Powell.