Ireland Women’s Sevens To Kick Off Olympic Season Against Australia And France
Ireland Women's Sevens return to action this weekend. ©INPHO/Martin Seras Lima
The Ireland Women’s Sevens squad, sponsored by TritonLake, step up their preparations for a historic Olympic season this week by hosting Australia and France for a 10-day training camp at the IRFU High Performance Centre.
World Rugby Sevens Series runners up Australia and France arrived in Dublin earlier this week to train alongside Ireland, before the three teams go head-to-head in the IRFU Invitational Sevens competition at the IRFU High Performance Centre across the next two weekends.
Ireland Women returned to pre-season training earlier this month as they prepare for the start of the rebranded HSBC SVNS season, which gets underway in Dubai in early December, and training and playing against world-class opposition in Australia and France is a major building block for the 2023/24 campaign ahead.
As the squads builds towards the season opener in Dubai, and onwards towards Paris 2024, it will be an invaluable pre-season hit out for Lucy Mulhall and her team-mates, as three of the top five teams from last season’s Women’s World Rugby Sevens Series go head-to-head in Dublin.
Looking ahead to the IRFU Invitational Sevens, Head Coach Temple Jones said: “As we build through our pre-season block, it is a brilliant opportunity for the wider squad to be exposed to high-level training against world-class opposition and then put our early-season work to the test in tournament play.
“It is an exciting season ahead for the Sevens programme and banking a big body of work this early in the campaign will hopefully put us in good stead as we look ahead to Dubai and further beyond to the Olympics.”
IRFU High Performance Director David Nucifora added: “We have developed a close relationship with both Australia and France in recent years and it is brilliant to welcome both teams and their management to the IRFU High Performance Centre this week.
“France have been regular visitors to our home and it is a great testament to our facilities and programme that Australia have travelled to Dublin and see benefit in training and playing against us during their pre-season. At the start of their Olympic year, it is an important 10-day training block for the players and squad to kick off the season.”
IRFU Invitational Sevens, Fixtures:
Saturday, 2 September:
- Ireland v Australia, 9.30am
- Ireland v France, 10.30am
- Australia v France, 12.30pm
Sunday, 3 September:
- Ireland v France, 9.30am
- Ireland v Australia, 10.30am
- Australia v France, 12.30pm.