Irish Rugby and Sevens

CIARAN_BOYLE

Ireland mens beat Australia 19-14 to take the bronze medal.

Massive achievement for the Irish team. Australia are after winning the Sevens series this year to give an idea of how much of an achievement this is.

KevIRL

Some performance. Kennedy's volley foot pass near the end a particular highlight

ScissorPaperRock

Great result

Thud

Two big scalps this tournament and a bronze medal. Great achievement for lads.

Would be great if they the HSBC series was got back on TV

irelandrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604470#Comment_119604470

Great result.

From the TV companies point of view i can see why it's not shown. It's a full day and a lot of the matches would have no interest.

But it would be great to see the last few games per round on tv

PMC83

Ireland seem to be competitive enough on the circuit now, any mumerings of ever bringing a stage to Ireland? Lord knows the fan here enjoy a pint and party atmosphere, it could be a hit...

StevenToast

Well done Ireland.....superb tournament👏🏻

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604649#Comment_119604649

I haven't heard any murmurings.

I do feel that we would want to introduce the sport to the rugby going public in some way first.

I wonder if we hosted an exhibition match after an international what percentage of the crowd would stay around and watch.

Let's say for example if Ireland's sevens team played the blitzbox after Ireland South Africa in the Aviva this November.

Would enough people buy a pint and stay around to make the event pay for itself and be worth it.

I don't know I'm just spitballing an idea to introduce sevens a bit.

S.M.B.

Commentator mentioned Kennedy retiring and how this was his last game but was then corrected and told he was taking a year off. Shame if he won't be part of next season given the momentum.

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604686#Comment_119604686

I'd say people would stick around after a full international. For me to have it work here I think they need to pitch a party atmosphere like the Hong Kong 7s. Maybe somewhere like the RDS would be better, people could swan in and out to the food truck / bar area and hang around for the day, take in the matches that interested them. I suppose its all very weather dependant which could be tricky here, but they can make it work in England I guess, so why not?

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604705#Comment_119604705

The money isn't there is sevens really.

Players are supposedly on €21K + €500 as an appearance bonus for each event they are in the squad for. In the first years or so of the Irish sevens program that was supplemented by being around a province's squad and getting appearance fees for playing for A teams. Then the B&I cup die in 2018.

Kennedy works another job which might be pushing him for his time. That said his other job might push him back into sevens as he works for the jersey sponsors of the Irish sevens team.

Maybe he wants to do one more season but is taking a hiatus so he is playing in Olympic year.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604757#Comment_119604757

I was thinking a few exhibition events after full internationals (with a single game or something) to build interest. Then after a year or so of doing that campaign for a spot on the series.

S.M.B.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604798#Comment_119604798

They said he was moving to full time employment. Assumed the players were in a bit more than what you said there so makes a bit more sense.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604649#Comment_119604649

No reason for world rugby to do it. They want to bring series events to bigger areas to grow game more/make more money. already is an event in UK.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604927#Comment_119604927

They may be on a bit more. My figures are on memory from an article in one of the papers 2-3 years ago.

Some players manage to supplement their income in rugby by being a tacklebag holder for a province in training and getting some a team minutes. Others get some media work, Jordan conroy did dancing with the stars and someone else did love Island a few years back. Others hold full time second jobs.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Just a quick summary of the season.

Mens sevens team

2021/2022 World Sevens Series 5th (9 events)

2022 World Cup 3rd (1 event)

2022 European Trophy 1st and promoted to European Championship (we along with England and Wales had been demoted to the second tier event for not competing for a number of years) (2 events)

Womens sevens team

2021/2022 World Sevens Series 4th (6 events)

2022 World Cup 7th (1 event)

2022 European Championship 2nd (2 events)

Interesting to look but in 2021/2022 our men competed in 12 events and our women in 9 events.

Thud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604485#Comment_119604485

This time of year Sky have a rugby channel with very little on it and can put it on the red button if there are clashes.

i doubt the rights are that expensive vs other sports considering World Rugby are letting it be streamed for free i’m sure they could get it pretty cheap. Maybe one for TG4 to go after

crisco10

The tournament was on Rte Player in its entirety, I watched tonnes of it on chromecast via that stream. But I only found out because I opened RTE player and accidentally went to the "live" page. They didnt seem to advertise it at all.

Lost Ormond

Squad named for opening round of world series this weekend

Women's series doesn't start until start of December

Ireland Men’s Sevens Squad:

Niall Comerford (UCD RFC/Leinster)

Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers RFC)

Sean Cribbin (Suttonians RFC)

Billy Dardis (Terenure College RFC) (capt)

Ed Kelly (Dublin University FC)

Jack Kelly (Dublin University FC)

Hugo Lennox (Skerries RFC)

Harry McNulty (UCD RFC)

Dylan O’Grady (UCD RFC)

Aaron O’Sullivan (UCD RFC)

Mark Roche (Lansdowne FC)

Tom Roche (Lansdowne FC)

Zac Ward (Ballynahinch RFC)

Hong Kong Sevens Schedule:

Friday, November 4 –

POOL D:

Ireland v Kenya, Hong Kong Stadium, 3.40pm local time/7.40am Irish time

Saturday, November 5 –

POOL D:

Ireland v Canada, Hong Kong Stadium, 11am local time/3am Irish time

Argentina v Ireland, Hong Kong Stadium, 3.10pm local time/7.10am Irish time

Sunday, November 6 –

Play-Offs

CIARAN_BOYLE

2xKelly

2xRoche

I wonder if the selectors are trying to confuse the commentary team.

IIRC it's top 4 in the whole series to qualify for the Olympics directly and we finished 5th last year.

That said its all uphill to qualify as NZ presumably won't miss half the sevens series and GB should be competitive.

Still best of luck to the Irish team starting their season and the Olympic qualification event.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823419#Comment_119823419

Same as last Olympics. top4 from world series then 1 from each continent and then 1 final place to final repechage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823228#Comment_119823228

God, it's extremely Leinster-centric selection.

Outside of Jordan Conroy (Connacht) and Zac Ward (Ulster) every single player came through Leinster (even Aaron O'Sullivan who came through the IQ pathway still spent time in the Leinster Academy).

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823669#Comment_119823669

Is the Leinster centreism good or bad?

I mean obviously it's not good to be reliant on the one province but is it because of Leinster excellence in developing sevens or because the sevens squad train in an IRFU facility in Dublin and only Leinster based players can afford to live commutable.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823775#Comment_119823775

I don't think k it's good but there could be a lot of reasons why it's the case. I don't think Leinster do anything more to produce 7s players. Like it's certai ly not by having more 7s tournaments etc then elsewhere but what you say about the team being dublin based and affordability could defo be a big factor.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823953#Comment_119823953

Leinster excellence in development was supposed be an example of a good reason while dublin based and affordability was supposed to be an example of a bad reason why the team would be Leinster centric.

I suspect that that's a big factor behind it to be honest but that might be just because we talked about that a lot with women's rugby recently.

S.M.B.

Didn't realise we were kicking the whole series of early this morning.

A 28-12 win over Kenya.

CIARAN_BOYLE

At first glance my above comment about GB being more competitive than England Wales and Scotland may have been wrong as they are 22-0 down to France at half time.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823669#Comment_119823669

Not entirely true.

Harry McNulty went to Rockwell and was in the Munster academy.

shaungil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119832329#Comment_119832329

Is Conroy not a Tullamore lad? Then moved to Buccs?

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119832447#Comment_119832447

He is. From tullamore. Started playing there. Played bit underage. Focused more on it around 18/19 played some AIL in tullamore but moved to buccs and then... conancht/7s

CIARAN_BOYLE

The Irish team beat Canada and Argentina this morning to finish top of our pool. This secures qualification to a quarter final against whoever comes second in the Australia New Zealand Samoa pool.