Ireland captain Billy Dardis determined to reach new milestones

The Ireland sevens veteran wants to use the disappointment of the Tokyo Olympics to reach new heights in Paris in 2024 and for their World Cup adventure which kicks off on Friday

VETERAN: Captain of the Ireland Men’s Rugby Sevens team and Senior Vice President of Operations at TritonLake, Billy Dardis, ahead of the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town this weekend. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Billy Dardis would like us to know that he is still just 27. The Ireland sevens veteran offers up this particular piece of information after a line of questioning that, inadvertently, might have you think that he is ready to be put out to pasture. He has, after all, been on this circuit for six years already.

That’s a long and impressive stint for a form of the game that does not pay handsomely and a path that makes such considerable demands of its players in the form of interminable flights, indistinguishable hotels and a blizzard of 14-minute games that burn the lungs and scramble the mind.