Nothing rattles and dulls Olympic ambition more than nerves. And nothing clears them more than two opening wins, the Ireland Sevens rugby team now sure of their place in Thursday evening’s knock-out medal matches – no matter what happens in the final Group A game against New Zealand.
Ireland’s confidence was also sent suitably soaring over the course of Wednesday, from the undeniable sense of relief after surviving their nervy opening game against South Africa, winning that 10-5, before returning to the sold-out Stade de France three-and-a-half hours later, floodlights switched on, and beating Japan 40-5, running in six impressive tries to their late one.
Terry Kennedy showed the way again, scoring a scintillating try from well inside his own half, followed by Chay Mullins (twice), captain Harry McNulty scoring his first in real style, before Niall Comerford and Zac Ward saw Ireland make it two from two against the Japanese.
“We talked about it before, this was our chance to do something no Irish team had ever done, win two pool matches at the Olympics,” said McNulty. “That was to the forefront, but Japan are a really good sign, try loads of different tricks.
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“You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself, by any means, but these two wins today eases the mental side of things, you’re not worried going to bed tonight, worrying about winning your last game, all that stress plays a big part.
“And we want to progress through as winners and give ourselves the best possible draw in the knockout stages. We have had incredible support in Paris today and it has been electric playing in front of this crowd, so we’re excited to come back tomorrow to raise our game and hopefully progress through the competition.”
Ireland head coach James Topping also made five changes from the seven who started against South Africa; having lost their opening game to South Africa at the Tokyo Games, and never quite recovering from there, the opening game here could have effectively decide their fate again.
“It was a really important win for us, to start the tournament,” Topping said. “We’ve had some incredible battles against South Africa, over the last season and there’s nothing between the sides. We also wanted to deliver performances that reflected our ambitions.”
Ward came off the bench this time to score his try: “Yeah listen, that’s just my role in the team,” Ward said. “As long as I can keep doing that, and we keep doing that, we should be all right.
“We’re just taking each day as it comes, try to keep winning every game we play and then we can think about what we can achieve after. Personally I just want to keep playing as much as I can, to soak up the atmosphere.
“It’s my first Olympics, first time in Paris ever, so I’m going to make the most of it. We knew it was going to be loud and when we were warming up we could hear it. But when you get out there and you see the stands almost full, it’s a bit daunting.
“But once the first whistle blows you put that to the back of your mind and just concentrate on the game. We say it in every tournament.”
Japan had already conceded 40 points in their opening game against New Zealand, losing 40-13; Thursday’s final group game against the Kiwi’s (3.30pm Irish time) will decide who tops the group, but Ireland will be back in the quarter-finals come what may, another win there putting into the medal games.
“That’s it, the prematch nerves are gone,” said Conroy, who scored Ireland’s opening try against South Africa as the clock spilled over at the end of the first half, having also fallen just short of an opening try on six minutes.
“You always try to get the first tournament win out of the way. It’s always like that with any tournament really. It’s just getting the first one done and then you’re in the zone. It’s been a long, massive build-up as well.
“Coming out seeing the full house kind of took me by surprise a little, but once the whistle blew I kind of got into a groove and forgot all about it and I was job on and try to secure that win ... With all the possession we had it was more so relief that we had scored because they were on the back foot, and we kept going.”
And getting closer to the medal podium with every game.
