Six months and four tournaments since my last column, I’ll try to squeeze in what the Irish Women’s Sevens team have been up to in the intervening period. As I write I am sitting in Toulouse preparing for the final tournament of the season in the World Sevens Series which takes place this weekend and the first of what is essentially three chances to qualify for next year’s Olympics in Paris.
We lie fifth in the World Series standings but as fourth placed France qualify for the Olympics as hosts, there is a spot up for grabs based on the rankings in this final counting tournament.
Rewinding a little, the first two tournaments of the year in January were in Sydney and Hamilton, a sun filled three weeks that boosted the vitamin D levels and because we were travelling to the other side of the world, we had a squad of 14 with 12 permitted to tog out for matches.
It wasn’t the only heat generated as some of the ‘young ones’ got tattoos. Other high points included finishing fourth in both tournaments, including a brilliant win over Fiji in the quarter-final in Sydney while away from the pitches, the initial bravado of wading into the waves at Coogee quickly disappeared. There was more than a touch of relief in being able to eventually escape the washing machine spin cycle effect.
In Hamilton we subjected our then coach Aiden McNulty and physio Jo Montgomery to a food tasting test, blindfolded, which proved two things; the first, it’s genuinely entertaining watching people taste things that they don’t enjoy and that Aiden, who lost out to Jo, is not a fan of fruit or veggies.
Three weeks after returning to Ireland we were back on the road, this time in the winter wonderland of a snow-covered Vancouver. We left several layers of skin on the astroturf of the indoor tournament venue but what burned more was finishing eighth; a good first day unravelled thereafter after we narrowly missed out on the semis.
Tobogganing on Grouse Mountain was a highlight, so too shopping in the home of Lululemon, while there wasn’t a single complaint about the caramel chocolate apples. What was supposed to be a 12-hour journey home turned into 35 hours with a layover complete with frustrated heads and tired bodies.
There was no time for any self-pity as we prepared for Hong Kong, the first time ever the Women’s Series got a chance to play in the iconic home of Sevens rugby. It was the first tournament under our new head coach Allan Temple-Jones – the former strength and conditioning coach for both the men’s and women’s Sevens teams from 2017-2020, having previously filled that role with the Blitzboks for 10 years – who had returned to Irish rugby from a spell with the Sharks.
Hong Kong was an assault on the senses and that includes some questionable street food. Meghan Burns described one offering as slippery, slimy dough while they also tried some cotton pad looking white thing and they said it was very dry. The weather was overcast, rainy and humid. Still Erin King was never tired of seeing her photograph on the main stadium entrance billboard.
A highlight off-field was seeing Abi Burton, one of the GB players back playing in the HK 10s tournament having been diagnosed less than a year ago with a very rare condition called autoimmune NMDA receptor encephalitis, which left her in a coma for 28 days and hospital for 75. It was wonderful to catch up.
Another eighth-place finish was tough to take but after dusting ourselves down at home we resumed training and prepared for Toulouse. A squad bonding day was prescribed, and it was a case of ‘en garde’ as we became pentathletes for a day, trying out fencing and laser shooting.
Hannah Daughton, who competes for Ireland in the modern pentathlon was a brilliant host. Things got interesting in the fencing; Claire Boles is a natural while Kathy Baker and Aoibheann Reilly were in their element at the laser shooting. We finished off the day with a pizza and ice cream treat in the HPC thanks to chefs Maurice and Alan with some Acai bowls from Tribe in Rathgar.
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We have over 100 supporters, family and friends making the trip to Toulouse; the dress code is green bucket hats. It makes me so happy that all the families know each other and enjoy the camaraderie of the extended group. For the last two years we have had supporters at every tournament and it’s such a joy knowing they’re on this journey with us.
They see all the hard work that goes into what we do and so it’s special to have them all get along so well and have come over as we bid to bring our season to a spectacular conclusion. Training has been good, sharp, everyone knows what is at stake. The nerves are there but how you handle them. It reinforces what it means to us all to wear the green jersey.
The squad is a family, tight-knit, there for each other in good times and bad. When you can’t breathe on a pitch, when you think there’s nothing more left, a look, a voice will get you back to your feet.
The Olympic dream is alive, and this Toulouse tournament is our first of three chances we have to qualify for Paris 2024, the others are in a European qualifier and after that the global repechage event. We have put ourselves into a good position to do it, at the first time of asking based on the world series season.
It will be special if we manage it this weekend so if you would like to support our Sevens team and get behind a group of hard working and resilient gals then tune in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday on World Rugby Sevens website and watch us play France, Australia and Brazil initially in our bid for Olympic qualification.
