Lucy Rock and Harry McNulty will captain the Ireland Sevens teams when they compete in the Olympic Games at the Stade de France ©SPORTSFILE/Harry Murphy
The Rugby Sevens match schedule for the upcoming Olympic Games has been unveiled for what promises to be a coming-of-age tournament for the sport on the big stage in Paris.
The Ireland Men’s Sevens team will kick off their campaign against South Africa on Wednesday, July 24 at 4.30pm Irish time, and they will be in action again later that day, against Japan at 8pm.
Day two will see James Topping’s side play New Zealand in their final Pool A match before the play-off and medal matches begin.
Meanwhile, the Ireland Women’s Sevens team will get their first Olympics unde way on Sunday, July 28 when they play Great Britain at 2.30pm Irish time.
With captain Lucy Rock back from a hamstring injury, Allan Temple-Jones’s charges will then face South Africa at 6pm. Day two will see them come up against Australia in their final Pool B encounter.
There are just 16 days to go until Rugby Sevens has the honour of kicking off the Paris Games on Wednesday, July 24, two days ahead of the Olympics’ opening ceremony.
The schedule follows the pools announcement, which took place in Monaco on June 23 and saw the 12 Men’s and 12 Women’s teams allocated to three pools of four teams based on their Olympic seedings, with teams ranked according to their performances over the last two years of the HSBC SVNS Series.
The Men’s competition will take place on July 24, 25, and 27, when the first team sport gold medal of the Games will be awarded to the Men’s Sevens champions. The equally highly-anticipated Women’s tournament follows on July 28-30.
All the action will take place at the iconic Stade de France, with a full house of 69,000 fans expected for all competition sessions as Sevens demonstrates its box office appeal and prepares to come of age in Paris, stamping its mark on the Olympic stage in its third appearance at the Games.
As teams continue their preparations to chase their Olympic dreams, the majority of squads have already been announced, and fans can now mark their calendars with the exact date and time of their favourite nations’ matches.
The competition format sees all teams play three pool matches, with eight teams qualifying for the quarter-finals in the evening session of the second day of competition, before the third day sees the semi-finals and the all-important medal matches as Olympic dreams are realised and broken.
Sevens is expected to be one of the highlights of Paris 2024, following the resounding success of last year’s Men’s 15s Rugby World Cup in France.
All six World Rugby regions are represented among the 24 teams who secured their spots in Paris via the HSBC SVNS Series, regional qualification competitions, and the World Rugby Sevens Repechage.
World Rugby Chief Executive Alan Gilpin said: “The unveiling of the match schedule is another exciting step on the road to Paris with just 16 days to go until Rugby Sevens kicks off the Olympic Games.
“The players, teams, and fans can now mark their calendars and fine-tune their preparations for what promises to be an incredible six days of fast-paced, all-action drama as some of the best athletes in the world showcase the speed, strength, and skill of Sevens to a huge worldwide audience.
Following Rugby Sevens’ Olympic debut at Rio 2016 and the Covid-affected Games in Tokyo, we are anticipating Paris 2024 to be the sport’s ‘coming of age’ Games, the biggest and best yet.
“With a full house of passionate fans expected across all sessions at the iconic Stade de Fance, this represents a golden opportunity to further grow rugby’s global appeal.”
Paris 2024 Executive Director of Sport Competitions, Aurélie Merle, commented: “Rugby Sevens has the honour of kicking off the Olympic Games in Paris and we know the atmosphere will be electric inside the Stade de France, with full and passionate crowds for every session in a country that truly loves rugby.
“The release of the competition schedule raises our anticipation even higher, with so many tantalising match-ups to look forward to.
“With less than three weeks to go, the stage is set and everything is ready for the athletes to enjoy an unrivalled experience, and to thrill all those millions of fans watching in France and around the world.”
For ticket information, please visit https://tickets.paris2024.org/.
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