Ireland’s Sevens fortunes firmly on the up

Ireland has an excellent chance of having a women’s sevens rugby team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after a spectacular and dramatic debut by a new squad at the European championships which ended in Moscow at the weekend.

The team, which has only been together since last March, ended up sixth in Europe and 12th in the world and, in the process, qualified for next year’s World Cup which, in turn, will be a qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympics.

The news was welcomed at last night’s annual general meeting of the Olympic Council of Ireland at which rugby was represented by Irish Rugby Football Union chief executive, Philip Browne.