Ireland Women’s Sevens Team: Olympic Games Factfile

2024 has already been a historic year for the Ireland Women’s Sevens team with their maiden HSBC SVNS Series tournament win. The challenge now is to reproduce that form in Paris where they made their long-awaited Olympic Games debut on Sunday.

Ireland Women’s Sevens Squad – 2024 Olympic Games

Ireland Women’s Sevens – Olympic Pools

Ireland Women’s Sevens – Olympic Match Schedule

– Ireland will make their Olympic bow in Paris after securing qualification as the fifth-placed team on the 2023 World Series, with the top four sides, excluding host nation France (who placed fourth), booking their tickets

– They finished third at the 2016 Olympic Repechage on home soil, at UCD, and fourth at the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Olympic qualifier in Russia in 2019

– Honours: 2024 HSBC SVNS Series – Perth Sevens champions; 2017 and 2022 Rugby Europe Sevens Championship silver medallists

– 2024 HSBC SVNS Series Record: Played 41, Won 14, Lost 27; Average tries scored per game = 1.9

– Ireland enjoyed their maiden HSBC SVNS Series Cup win this season in Perth, defeating hosts Australia 19-14 in a thrilling final in January

– They were the only team ranked outside the top two to lift a tournament trophy this season, and ended Australia and New Zealand’s Cup title dominance stretching back 12 tournaments to the USA’s win in Seville in 2022

– Since this victory and without injured captain Lucy Mulhall Rock, Ireland have won only 10 of their past 25 games across the next five SVNS Series legs. All 10 victories have been against teams ranked lower than them in the series standings

– Their try-scoring rate dropped significantly across the second half of the season. They averaged 16 tries per tournament between Dubai and Perth, but this fell to 10.6 per event between Vancouver and Madrid

– They have scored 39% of their tries this season from set-piece possession, the third highest ratio of any team, behind the USA and Canada

– Their attack struggled to break the defensive line between Vancouver and Madrid, averaging one line-break every 10.8 carries compared to a ratio of 5.9 between Dubai and Perth

– They averaged the fifth highest retention success from the restart of any team this season with 20%. As a result, 24% of their tries scored originated form restart possession, their second highest scoring source after the scrum and lineout

– Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe scored a team-high 33 tries this season, the fourth most of any player on the SVNS Series circuit

– She played just 31 games this season, the fewest of any of the top five try scorers. She is the third highest all-time leading try scorer in SVNS Series history with 197 tries

– Lucy Mulhall Rock will return for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury during the opening match in Los Angeles. Ireland won just seven of 19 games played without her (37%), compared to 12 of 22 (55%) when she was on the field

– The girls in green averaged 2.7 tries and 18 points per game when Rock played, compared to 2.2 tries and 12.7 points per game without her

– Despite missing 19 matches for Ireland this season, the Tinahely woman still had the third most try assists for the team (10), behind Stacey Flood (13), and Megan Burns (12)

– Stacey Flood produced a team-high 13 try assists this season, including seven for Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Ireland’s best combination

– Flood also contributed significantly to their defence, making a team-high 85 tackles, the joint-sixth most of any player in this season’s SVNS Series

– The skilful Dubliner is one of three players in this Ireland squad, alongside Megan Burns and Emily Lane, who played every game this season

– South African Allan Temple-Jones returned to the Ireland Sevens set-up last year, with the Hong Kong Sevens his first tournament as head coach. He oversaw their Olympic qualification in Toulouse that may, before making that tournament-winning breakthrough with the team in Perth