World Cup Trio Sign Up To Women’s Sevens

The Irish Rugby Football Union today announced that 19 players have now signed up to the Ireland Women’s Sevens High Performance Programme.

The 19 contracted * players are based in DCU as they prepare for the qualifying road to the 2016 Olympics.

The squad includes three Ireland Women’s Rugby World Cup stars – wingers Ashleigh Baxter and Alison Miller and centre Jenny Murphy.

Along with the rest of the squad, they will train full–time at the IRFU Sevens High Performance base in Dublin City University (DCU).

11 of the contracted players came through previous IRFU Talent ID (TID) programmes, with a number of girls coming from different sporting backgrounds including football, athletics and hockey.

A further screening camp takes place on the weekend of November 1 at the High Performance base in DCU.

All female athletes who have dreamt of representing Ireland on a world stage can register for the TID day at www.irishrugby.ie/womens7s.

Speaking about becoming a professional rugby player, Jenny Murphy said: “It’s great to be training and playing rugby every day. I am looking forward to getting started on the circuit.

“I have been lucky to play with some fantastic rugby players and have learned so much from them, now hopefully I can use some of the experience I have gained in the Rugby World Cup and Six Nations in the Sevens programme.

“The sky’s the limit, we have a huge challenge ahead of us to reach Rio, but we’re not the kind of team to shirk away from anything difficult. I am looking forward to it.”

Ireland have two opportunities to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The first is an Olympic qualification tournament which will be held in Europe next July with the winners of this event qualifying for Rio.

The second is via an Olympic repechage tournament which will be held between January and June 2016.

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS – CENTRALISED CONTRACTED PLAYERS:

Siobhan Barrett
Ashleigh Baxter
Nicole Cronin
Nikki Caughey
Aoife Doyle
Katie Fitzhenry
Lisa Jacob
Claire Keohane
Martina McCarthy
Alison Miller
Jenny Murphy
Lucy Mulhall
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe
Elaine Ryan
Hannah Tyrrell
Laura Lee Walsh
Susan Vaughan
Megan Williams
Ailsa Hughes

2014/15 SEASON PLAN –

October 23-24: Training camp with England Sevens squad at their base in Surrey
November 15: Biarritz Sevens Women’s international tournament
December 4-5: Dubai international invitation Women’s Sevens tournament
January 7-17: Training camp in Chula Vista, San Diego with USA Sevens squad
March 28-April 7: Training camp in Canada with the Canadian Sevens squad
May 23-24: Amsterdam Sevens International Tournament
June 13-14: FIRA/AER European Championships, Moscow
June 20-21: FIRA/AER European Championships
July 25-26: Olympic qualification tournament – location to be confirmed

* The Irish Sports Council provides a training award which is specific for players with Olympic potential. The programme is administered by the IRFU to players within the Sevens set-up.