Irish Rugby and Sevens

Thud

Woo hoo! Doesn't seem so long ago since we were arguing whether Ireland should bother with Sevens.
Great performance and they will make the pointy end of some tournaments next year.
Sevens now a viable choice for youth players so will see both more players coming through and growth of the sevens game in Ireland.

eagle eye

Yes,we are going to be contenders for tournaments in a short while. It'll take a couple of seasons but I'd expect us to win tournaments as we get used to playing at the top table in sevens.

Thud

eagle eye wrote: »

Yes,we are going to be contenders for tournaments in a short while. It'll take a couple of seasons but I'd expect us to win tournaments as we get used to playing at the top table in sevens.

They finished 3rd in London last year on their only invite to the series so mightn’t be that long. Pretty much the same squad too.

munsterlegend

It will take a while to win a tournament I think. We struggled with Germany’s physicality and the likes of Fiji South Africa would still dominate us. However the only way to get better is being part of the series. Olympic qualification looks very tough from what I can read.

shotgunmcos

Olympic QF is tough no matter what team you are. This is nothing but great for Irish Rugby

Onto the top flight now and 10x Tournaments on the series next year will only help the squad grow even stronger and more tactically acute to compete with the top teams

Agree it's a viable option for youth to aim for too. And would be great to see a national program around it to ensure we are represented at the Olympics and have another medium to develop and feed talent to through it and beyond

eagle eye

shotgunmcos wrote:

Agree it's a viable option for youth to aim for too. And would be great to see a national program around it to ensure we are represented at the Olympics and have another medium to develop and feed talent to through it and beyond

Yeah you need a core group of players and then bring in young players who are not yet ready for top level 15's.

shotgunmcos

https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/1114821827891621889?s=19

BOD interviewing Anthony Eddy and confirms Ireland will be at the London and Paris legs again this year.

durkadurka

It’s got to be pretty expensive to send a squad round to five continents all year. Will we get appearance/prize money?

munsterlegend

durkadurka wrote: »

It’s got to be pretty expensive to send a squad round to five continents all year. Will we get appearance/prize money?

I think there are big sponsorship deals as a result.

sydthebeat

durkadurka wrote: »

It’s got to be pretty expensive to send a squad round to five continents all year.

all primary costs paid for by the competition organisers
no prize money at stake

however unfortunately sometimes you get circumstances like this year with Zimbabwe where players and fans had a 'whip around' to cover costs not included... as the Zimbabweans couldnt get money out of their country.

eagle eye

durkadurka wrote:

It’s got to be pretty expensive to send a squad round to five continents all year. Will we get appearance/prize money?

Every team has sponsorship, obviously there are tv deals too. The prize money isn't very big.

jackdidley

Super achievement from a small pool of players who specialise at 7’s.
What size squad will be needed to rotate for minimum 10 tournaments plus training camps etc?
How will contracts be agreed and with who (IRFU?) for the fellas who are looking at playing primarily 7’s

D14Rugby

The contracts given now will be interesting. The 7s have had a big enough squad in training with them this year but how many of them would want to go full time 7s is a different thing altogether. Wonder if they'll do a mix of full and part time to allow players to stay in 15s academies and stuff.

Squidgy Black

jackdidley wrote: »

Super achievement from a small pool of players who specialise at 7’s.
What size squad will be needed to rotate for minimum 10 tournaments plus training camps etc?
How will contracts be agreed and with who (IRFU?) for the fellas who are looking at playing primarily 7’s

Squad sizes for tournaments are 13 players, only 12 allowed to play in a given match. General squad size for tournaments/training camps and cover injuries would probably be around 17-20 ish.

Players are already contracted with the IRFU if they're not contracted to a province.

DJIMI TRARORE

Can someone clarify for me, Was this a qualifier for the elite 7s,ie:to play Figi,SA,NZ etc and what must we do to get to olympics. TIA

Squidgy Black

DJIMI TRARORE wrote: »

Can someone clarify for me, Was this a qualifier for the elite 7s,ie:to play Figi,SA,NZ etc and what must we do to get to olympics. TIA

Yes, was a qualifier to become part of the World Series and play the top sides in tournaments.

Olympic qualifying is done by either getting top 4 in the World Series, winning one of the regional tournaments, or the last chance is the World Rugby Olympic Repechage tournament.

eagle eye

DJIMI TRARORE wrote:

Can someone clarify for me, Was this a qualifier for the elite 7s,ie:to play Figi,SA,NZ etc and what must we do to get to olympics. TIA

Yes we are now playing at the top level.

It's very hard to qualify for the Olympics as there will only be twelve teams.
Four teams qualify through the World Rugby sevens and we won't be one of them. There will be a European qualification tournament with only the winner qualifying. There will be tournaments for every continent.
We need to make the European qualification final to have any chance. The runners up from every continent battle it out for the final spot.
There is a chance that England get one of the WRC spots and at the Olympics it's GB so Wales and Scotland won't be trying to qualify. If that happens then we will basically battle it out with France and Spain for the European spot.

munsterlegend

Great sevens final between Fiji and France. The French have improved a lot but Fiji clinical with any chance. Ended 21-7 to Fiji.

munsterlegend

eagle eye wrote: »

Yes we are now playing at the top level.

It's very hard to qualify for the Olympics as there will only be twelve teams.
Four teams qualify through the World Rugby sevens and we won't be one of them. There will be a European qualification tournament with only the winner qualifying. There will be tournaments for every continent.
We need to make the European qualification final to have any chance. The runners up from every continent battle it out for the final spot.
There is a chance that England get one of the WRC spots and at the Olympics it's GB so Wales and Scotland won't be trying to qualify. If that happens then we will basically battle it out with France and Spain for the European spot.

France look very strong and we are probably about the same level as Spain. I don’t think England will get the top 4 which makes it very difficult.

eagle eye

munsterlegend wrote:

France look very strong and we are probably about the same level as Spain. I don’t think England will get the top 4 which makes it very difficult.

Well it's a shootout between them and South Africa for the fourth spot. South Africa are struggling a bit having lost so many to 15s over the last couple of seasons. It'll go right down to the wire, SA's weakened squad cannot afford to lose an important player.
I think we are better than Spain, I think we are at or close to France's level. There's been a huge improvement in the Irish over the past twelve months. The coaching is excellent too, the movement of the players while in possession is up there with the best in the world. The defensive organisation this past weekend, apart from the Uruguay second half, was quite impressive too.

munsterlegend

eagle eye wrote: »

Well it's a shootout between them and South Africa for the fourth spot. South Africa are struggling a bit having lost so many to 15s over the last couple of seasons. It'll go right down to the wire, SA's weakened squad cannot afford to lose an important player.
I think we are better than Spain, I think we are at or close to France's level. There's been a huge improvement in the Irish over the past twelve months. The coaching is excellent too, the movement of the players while in possession is up there with the best in the world. The defensive organisation this past weekend, apart from the Uruguay second half, was quite impressive too.

Yeah maybe England will catch them. European series might suit them too in Paris and London. I think in physicality we would struggle big time with the top teams at the moment including France. Will be interesting how we do in the upcoming series where confidence should be high.

Cosmo Kramer

Interesting to see that Wales are in the relegation spot with three rounds to go and might be the team we replace next year. No Welsh teams guaranteed in the Pro 14 playoffs or next year's champions cup yet either. Their international side really are a huge outlier in comparison to the rest of their setup. You'd wonder how long that can continue as it seems to be a success story built on sand.

eagle eye

Cosmo Kramer wrote:

Interesting to see that Wales are in the relegation spot with three rounds to go and might be the team we replace next year. No Welsh teams guaranteed in the Pro 14 playoffs or next year's champions cup yet either. Their international side really are a huge outlier in comparison to the rest of their setup. You'd wonder how long that can continue as it seems to be a success story built on sand.

I think it'll be Japan that goes.
Yeah their club rugby is a bit of a shambles right now. Like the national team are very good and there's only two major players, Williams and Biggar that don't play their club rugby for a Welsh club. Its hard to know if it will improve, they are behind Ireland as regards development at under age.
They never seem to take the sevens that seriously outside of the European tournaments

The Lost Sheep

Thrashssacre wrote: »

Where do yous guys reckon we rank in relation to the other World Series teams? Midtable? Slightly higher?

We did well once as an invite side but difficult to say especially trying to say we'll be higher than mid table.

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Fantastic display from the lads, considering where they were 3 years ago playing in Europe B, to now be a core side in the World Series is absolutely immense, and a massive achievement for not only the players but for the coaching staff and the IRFU for putting the correct structures in place.

But will be interesting to see what IRFU do about 7s at age grade/domestic club level to help find future 7s players if we're to stay on the world series

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Excellent, made it look routine. A black mark in Irish rugby corrected as regards our absence from the 7s circuit.

Massive pressure off them now in terms of the 7s series, once they're in they'll be far too good to have to worry about relegation, they should realistically aim for mid table next year and build from there.

Olympic qualification the next big goal presumably?

Staying on world series would be higher goal for me tbh.
Olympics would be great but finding feet on world series is far greater importance

Thud wrote: »

Woo hoo! Doesn't seem so long ago since we were arguing whether Ireland should bother with Sevens.
Great performance and they will make the pointy end of some tournaments next year.
Sevens now a viable choice for youth players so will see both more players coming through and growth of the sevens game in Ireland.

7s needs to be played more in clubs so kids can play it there and i would use clubs not the schools as it has extra benefit for some areas of getting kids who dont play club rugby in their teens in the 15s game because of schools-youths restrictions a chance to keep ties to the club where in many cases they began playing the sport

eagle eye wrote: »

Yes,we are going to be contenders for tournaments in a short while. It'll take a couple of seasons but I'd expect us to win tournaments as we get used to playing at the top table in sevens.

Steady on. Very hard to say that we will be going on to win tournaments.

durkadurka wrote: »

It’s got to be pretty expensive to send a squad round to five continents all year. Will we get appearance/prize money?

World Rugby/HSBC cover a lot of the costs

The Lost Sheep

So for mens side we have slots as invitational side in world series coming up and then european grand prix series in Moscow, Lodz(Poland) as well as Olympic qualification tournament in Colombiers France
Moscow is June 22/23, Colombiers is July 13/14 and Lodz is July 20/21

Women have grand prix June 29/30 in Marcoussis and July 20/21 in Ukraine
and Olympic Qualification July 13/14 in Kazan Russia

arsebiscuits1

Very, very impressed with the showing of the lads over the weekend.

The fitness, skills and dedication on display was really heartwarming to see. The emotion at the end showed what it meant.

I am extremely excited to see what these fellas can do on the bigger stages. We've already seen them finish 3rd in London. Their world cup finish (9th) probably more indicative of where they are as a team currently. But the team as they are will be more than capable of some top 4 finishes next season.

What they are lacking most on the side currently I feel is an out and out enforcer. Someone like a James Rodwell for England.

Currently filling that role is Harry McNulty who I feel is an absolutely superb athlete and has been integral to Irelands efforts so far. But he's at most 90kgs and 6'1"

I would absolutely love to see Nick Timoney or someone similar to him in the Ireland setup. He had such pace and size that you could really shape a lot around him

The Lost Sheep

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Very, very impressed with the showing of the lads over the weekend.

The fitness, skills and dedication on display was really heartwarming to see. The emotion at the end showed what it meant.

I am extremely excited to see what these fellas can do on the bigger stages. We've already seen them finish 3rd in London. Their world cup finish (9th) probably more indicative of where they are as a team currently. But the team as they are will be more than capable of some top 4 finishes next season.

What they are lacking most on the side currently I feel is an out and out enforcer. Someone like a James Rodwell for England.

Currently filling that role is Harry McNulty who I feel is an absolutely superb athlete and has been integral to Irelands efforts so far. But he's at most 90kgs and 6'1"

I would absolutely love to see Nick Timoney or someone similar to him in the Ireland setup. He had such pace and size that you could really shape a lot around him

Timoney played for the 7s side 2 years ago on grand prix series. Now we're on series we'll see a good few more involved as they have more opportunities to play. Grand Prix series in summer will help that

Richie_Rich89

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Very, very impressed with the showing of the lads over the weekend.

The fitness, skills and dedication on display was really heartwarming to see. The emotion at the end showed what it meant.

I am extremely excited to see what these fellas can do on the bigger stages. We've already seen them finish 3rd in London. Their world cup finish (9th) probably more indicative of where they are as a team currently. But the team as they are will be more than capable of some top 4 finishes next season.

What they are lacking most on the side currently I feel is an out and out enforcer. Someone like a James Rodwell for England.

Currently filling that role is Harry McNulty who I feel is an absolutely superb athlete and has been integral to Irelands efforts so far. But he's at most 90kgs and 6'1"

I would absolutely love to see Nick Timoney or someone similar to him in the Ireland setup. He had such pace and size that you could really shape a lot around him

I'd have thought McNulty was a bit bigger than that. The interwebz has him down at 94-95kg and 6'2''

arsebiscuits1

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Timoney played for the 7s side 2 years ago on grand prix series. Now we're on series we'll see a good few more involved as they have more opportunities to play. Grand Prix series in summer will help that

I know I thought he was incredible that year. His pace was outstanding for such a big fella

arsebiscuits1

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

I'd have thought McNulty was a bit bigger than that. The interwebz has him down at 94-95kg and 6'2''

I could see him having those dimensions but that would be his absolute max size I reckon.

I don't necessarily mean he is undersized, but the sheer explosiveness and pace is something that he is slightly lacking.

I don't want to seem like I am criticising McNulty either.

I am just using him as the example as he is the biggest player on the squad and we could really do with someone slightly bigger and a bit more powerful