Conroy: We’ve Taken A Lot Of Confidence From This Season

Embracing his second Olympic Games, Jordan Conroy says the Ireland Men’s Sevens team are keeping an inward focus ahead of their first pool match against South Africa tomorrow (kick-off 4.30pm Irish time – live on RTÉ 2/BBC iPlayer/Eurosport 2).

Both sides are craving a strong start at the Stade de France where 69,000 fans are expected to be in attendance for all the Rugby Sevens competition sessions. Just like 15s rugby, Ireland and South Africa have plenty of recent history in the Sevens code.

The Ireland Men finished 10th on their Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, losing their first game to South Africa (33-14), but Conroy says their second place finish in this season’s HSBC SVNS Series standings shows how much they have improved.

“We were second this season so it kind of shows me we are well able to beat these (more established teams) and we shouldn’t be afraid of them,” he said, speaking ahead of their day one duels with South Africa, and Japan (kick-off 8pm).

“It’s just the fact we mainly focus on ourselves now. We don’t think about those teams in that frame anymore, ‘Oh my God, it’s Fiji’.

“We are aware what they can do but if we just stick to what we do, we can beat these with our strategy.

“That’s the way we’ve been the last year or two, we respect them but we don’t put them on a pedestal anymore.”

Living his sporting life in the fast lane 🏉

For Ireland speedster, Jordan Conroy – sport has always been a part of his life
#Paris2024 | #RugbySevens | @IrishRugby | @TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/oBXnxYOXGl

— Rugby Sevens (@SVNSSeries) July 21, 2024

While New Zealand, silver medallists at the last Olympics, will also want to have a big say in a talent-laden Pool A, building some early momentum by beating the Blitzboks is all that this Ireland squad are thinking about.

James Topping’s charges have dominated this fixture this season, winning five of their six meetings with South Africa. Notably, in-form foward Zac Ward scored seven tries across those games, including two braces.

Over the years the winning margins have been tight, with 13 of the 19 matches since Ireland became a core team in 2019 decided by a single figure margin. Indeed, the past three clashes – including the two recent Irish victories in Madrid – have been decided by five points.

A fiercely-competitive HSBC SVNS Series produced four different tournament winners across the campaign. Ireland fell narrowly short of a first gold in Singapore, while they also picked up three bronze medals and finished in the top five at each leg.

The fight for medals at the Olympics will be even more hotly contested over the coming days, with Conroy, one of seven players in the Ireland group who played in Tokyo, explaining: “Of the 12 teams, anyone is capable of beating the other 11 teams.

“It was going to be a tough pool anyway, and we’ve taken a lot of confidence from playing these teams throughout the season to know we’ve the ability to win these games.

“It comes under the ‘who is hungrier?’, so we’re literally just focusing on what we can do to win these games.”

Having another crack at the Olympics was always a goal for the Tullamore man, who turned 30 in March. He touched down twice against the Republic of Korea at the Tokyo Games, but Ireland’s challenge petered out with a disappointing 22-0 play-off defeat to Kenya.

He remains one of the most dangerous wingers on the international Sevens circuit, with an Ireland Men’s record of 123 tries scored in 171 SVNS Series outings.

It was no surprise that it was the jet-heeled Conroy who crossed twice in the second half to seal Ireland’s qualification for a second Olympics. They booked their ticket by overcoming Great Britain 26-12 to win last summer’s European Games.

Speaking about the benefits of qualifying a year out, and how the players have taken confidence from having three more years of SVNS Series rugby under their belts, he admitted: “We definitely wanted a different experience from the Tokyo one.

“We’ve obviously got three more years’ experience on top of the players we were back by then. The best thing we did was not change a thing from our season because I feel like when it’s the Olympics, you think you have to do this one bit extra.

“The secret was just to maintain what we were doing and do them well, keep doing the things you are doing well and minimise the things you’re doing badly.

“Having the season beforehand was a major, major thing, to be able to work on those things and have the confidence going into this tournament.”

The Ireland Men have used that longer run-up to the Olympics to regularly challenge for medals on the SVNS Series circuit. Their results this year included a first ever triumph over New Zealand, whom they toppled 36-21 in a memorable Cape Town Cup quarter-final.

Conroy and his team-mates were among the first Irish athletes to arrive in the French capital, as the Men’s Sevens tournament begins two days before Paris 2024’s opening ceremony, and concludes on Saturday, the first ‘official’ day of these Olympics.

The schedule is to the Buccaneers clubman’s liking, as they get a chance to set the tone for Team Ireland and put themselves in the running for the first team sport medals of the Games.

“We’re not going to be overwhelmed. We know what to expect. Having had a taste of it in Tokyo, it’s not something I feel I need to go and do, go and see every athlete or exchange pins.

“I’m there to compete now. It will be a different experience. We’ve pretty much got a taste of it.

“Just get in early (with the way the tournament is scheduled), get out early. You kind of get away from the madness in a way. That’s the way I see it.

“It’s just that waiting as well, knowing you still have to compete when you see other athletes finishing.

“You just want to get it done and sometimes, not for us, but maybe for other athletes, that wait can cause anxiety because you want to get going,” he added.