The Ireland Men’s Sevens management team have confirmed their 12-man squad to take part in the second round of the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series in Lodz, Poland this weekend.
The Ireland side were the overall winners of the Moscow leg last weekend, defeating Spain 12-0 in the final. This is the first season that Ireland have competed at this level, having progressed through the lower European tiers over the past two seasons.
Munster’s Greg O’Shea has been called into the squad and is set to win his first Ireland Sevens cap this weekend. Billy Dardis will again captain the team and he is joined by his UCD team-mates Hugo Keenan and Harry McNulty. McNulty was Ireland’s top try scorer in Moscow, with six tries to his name.
The Lansdowne trio of Ian Fitzpatrick, John O’Donnell and Mark Roche will look to back up their performances from Moscow, as will Clontarf winger Mick McGrath, Terry Kennedy from St. Mary’s, Naas ace Fionn Carr, Buccaneers flyer Jordan Conroy and Queen’s and Ulster back rower Nick Timoney.
Ireland have been drawn in Pool A with Germany, hosts Poland and Portugal. Ahead of the squad’s departure, Anthony Eddy, the IRFU’s Director of Rugby Sevens, said: “We got off to a really good start last weekend in Moscow, and winning the trophy at our first ever Grand Prix event was a real positive for the Sevens Programme.
“The players have been working hard over the past number of weeks in training and it was great to see them go out and perform. However, this competition is played over four stages, so we’ve looked at areas we can improve on for this weekend and hopefully we can go to Poland and get another good result.”
The Grand Prix Series offers Ireland the chance to qualify for the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in San Francisco next summer. There is the carrot of qualification for two nations outside of those who are already pre-qualified from the 2013 Moscow World Cup or via this season’s World Rugby Sevens Series.
The European teams who have already qualified are England, France, Scotland and Wales. Russia are the only European side in the Series who are outside of automatic qualification, so they, along with the likes of Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Georgia look set to be Ireland’s main competition for the top two places.
Video Replays/In Pics: Ireland Men’s Sevens Success In Moscow
IRELAND MEN’S SEVENS Squad (2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series – Round 2, Miejski Stadium, Lodz, Poland, Saturday, June 10-Sunday, June 11):
Fionn Carr (Naas)
Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers)
Billy Dardis (UCD) (capt)
Ian Fitzpatrick (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster)
Terry Kennedy (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Mick McGrath (Clontarf)
Harry McNulty (UCD)
John O’Donnell (Lansdowne)
Greg O’Shea (Shannon/Munster)
Mark Roche (Lansdowne)
Nick Timoney (Queen’s University/Ulster)
IRELAND MEN’S SEVENS Fixtures –
Lodz 7s – Pool A:
Saturday, June 10:
Ireland v Poland, Miejski Stadium, 11.50am local time/10.50am Irish time
Ireland v Germany, Miejski Stadium, 2.13pm local time/1.13pm Irish time
Ireland v Portugal, Miejski Stadium, 4.58pm local time/3.58pm Irish time
Saturday, June 11:
Play-Offs
The full fixtures/pools are available on the Rugby Europe tournament page. Live streaming of the matches will be on www.rugbyeurope.tv. For information on the RWC Sevens qualification process, click here.
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