Parsons on 15s and 7s: 'It's like choosing a favourite child'

The next 18 months should afford Parsons the chance to showcase her talents via Six Nations commitments, the HSBC sevens series, an Olympic Games and a likely World Cup in 2025.

MULTI-TALENTED: Ireland's Beibhinn Parsons. Pic: Laszlo Geczo, Inpho

When things were at their worst, when the IRFU was falling miserably short in its duties to the women’s game and the national team was failing to qualify for a World Cup, the competing needs of the 15s and sevens squads were seen as a symbol of the dysfunction.

One form of the game had atrophied from a point where they had been Grand Slam winners and World Cup semi-finalists to a watching brief from afar when the game’s best got together in New Zealand in 2021.