Lane And Parsons Picked In Ireland Women’s Squad For Sydney 7s

A 13-strong Ireland Women’s Sevens squad has been confirmed to travel to Australia ahead of the third leg of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Sydney next week.

The travelling squad, which is captained by Lucy Mulhall, could see World Series debuts for Emily Lane and the uncapped Beibhinn Parsons. Ireland are currently seventh in the standings with 16 series points.

Lane, who turned 20 this month, travelled to Colorado with the squad for the opening round of the World Series back in October, and the 17-year-old Parsons, having made her Ireland 15s debut in November, links up with the senior Sevens side to continue her development across both forms of the game.

The Ireland Women will train at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation in Narrabeen before they relocate to central Sydney ahead of the tournament kicking off at Spotless Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park on Friday week.

The girls in green finished eighth at the Dubai 7s tournament last month and will face some familiar opponents in Canada, Fiji and Russia in Pool B in Sydney. They kick off the opening day against Russia whom they defeated in both Glendale (21-10) and Dubai (26-0).

After confirming the squad for Sydney, Anthony Eddy, the IRFU’s Director of Women’s & Sevens Rugby, said: “Sydney marks the halfway point on this year’s World Series and it’s another opportunity for the players to go out and put in strong performances.

“We have a few players unavailable to us due to injury, but that in turn hands a great opportunity to other players in the programme to make their mark.”

The Sydney 7s sees both the Women’s and Men’s HSBC World Sevens Series tournaments takes place over three days at the Spotless Stadium, with the pool stages on Friday week, the quarter-finals and Challenge Trophy games scheduled for Saturday week and and the finals down for decision on Sunday week.

For more information on the Sydney 7s, or to buy tickets, visit the tournament website here. Information on the World Rugby Sevens Series, including where to watch, is available here.

The Ireland Sevens jerseys are available to buy online here from Elverys Intersport, official sports retailer of the IRFU.

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS Squad (2018/19 HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series – Sydney 7s, Spotless Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia, Friday, February 1-Sunday, February 3):

Aoife Doyle (Railway Union/Shannon/Munster)
Louise Galvin (UL Bohemians/Munster)
Katie Heffernan (Railway Union/Mullingar/Leinster)
Eve Higgins (Railway Union/Leinster)
Brittany Hogan (Railway Union/Ulster)
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union/Munster)
Anna McGann (Old Belvedere/UCD/Leinster)
Emily Lane (Mallow/Munster)
Lucy Mulhall (Rathdrum) (capt)
Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird (Old Belvedere/Munster)
Audrey O’Flynn (Ireland Sevens)
Beibhinn Parsons (Ballinasloe/Connacht) *
Hannah Tyrrell (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

* Denotes uncapped player at this level

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS FIXTURES – SYDNEY 7s:

Friday, February 1 –

Pool B:

Russia v Ireland, Spotless Stadium, Sydney, 12pm local time/1am Irish time
Canada v Ireland, Spotless Stadium, Sydney, 3.06pm local time/4.06am Irish time
Ireland v Fiji, Spotless Stadium, Sydney, 5.28pm local time/6.28am Irish time

Saturday, February 2 –

Play-Offs

Sunday, February 3 –

Finals

2018/19 HSBC WORLD RUGBY WOMEN’S SEVENS SERIES:

USA (Denver), Infinity Park, Glendale, October 20-21 – 6th Place/10 Points
DUBAI, Sevens Stadium, Dubai, November 29-30 – 8th Place/6 Points
AUSTRALIA (Sydney), Spotless Stadium, Sydney, February 1-3
JAPAN (Kitakyushu), Mikuni World Stadium, Kitakyushu, April 20-21
CANADA (Langford), Westhills Stadium, Vancouver Island, May 11-12
FRANCE (Paris), Stade Jean-Bouin, Paris, May 31-June 3

For more information on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, click here.