Mulhall Rock Announces Her Sevens Retirement

Mulhall Rock is retiring after proudly captaining the Ireland Women on their Olympic debut in Paris. Her tournament was cruelly cut short by a knee injury in the second pool match against South Africa.

It was an injury-disrupted 2024 for the Tinahely woman, but she fought back from a worrying hamstring injury, and a subsequent reinjury, to captain her country on the Olympic stage, just six months after leading them to a historic HSBC SVNS Series title win in Perth.

Posting on Instagram following Ireland’s eighth place finish yesterday, Mulhall Rock wrote: “Sin a bhfuil. It’s been the honour of my life to play for and captain the Ireland Women’s Sevens team for the past 10 years, but now it’s time for me to step aside and watch my amazing team-mates and friends take this team forward and on to bigger and better things.”

It was an email from Stan McDowell, the then-IRFU Sevens Development coach, that started her on her Sevens globetrotting journey back in 2014.

He invited her for a trial, knowing the transferable skills and physical attributes she possessed as a 2011 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship winner with Wicklow.

By the following year, the raw young talent from a family farm in Crossbridge was already appointed Ireland Sevens captain, coming under the tutelage of then-head coach Anthony Eddy, and selected as the IRUPA Women’s Sevens Player of the Year.

World Series core team status was also achieved in 2015, and the girls in green have been on the global circuit ever since, with Mulhall Rock helping them rise from 12th in 2016 to a high of fourth in 2022.

Among her team-mates in those early days were two of her bridesmaids from her wedding last December, Stacey Flood and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, with the ‘OG’ trio becoming the driving forces behind Ireland’s standout achievements in recent seasons.

That 2021/22 campaign saw the Ireland Women, who were coached then by Aiden McNulty, make history by winning their first World Series medal – a superb silver at the Seville Sevens.

Mulhall Rock captained the team to two more podium finishes – bronze in Langford in 2022, and a glittering gold in Perth last January – and their consistent World Series form, into 2023, saw them qualify directly for the Paris Olympics.

It was a huge boost for the Ireland Sevens programme, with the Men’s side subsequently earning qualification through the European Games, and it was a dream fulfilled for the 30-year-old Wicklow native after being part of the previous two Olympic cycles when they missed out.

“I fell head over heels in love with Sevens since it first came into my life in 2014, It’s taught me so much over these years, about failure and how to bounce back from it, about humility and the importance of it, about winning and how it doesn’t fulfil us.

“About resilience, empathy, kindness, hard work, commitment, pride, heart, but more than any of this it’s taught me that life’s all about who we spend it with, how we make them feel, how we lift them up and how we leave a mark on people’s lives that lasts long after we leave the room.”

A graduate of UCD with degrees in Science and Mathematics, Mulhall Rock works as a Vice President of Business Development with Ireland Sevens team sponsors TritonLake, having combined the role with her tournament and training commitments, with the Sevens squad based at the IRFU High Performance Centre.

A natural leader and clever game manager with a footballing ability that marked her out as one of the best Sevens out-halves at the highest level, she scored 812 points in 213 HSBC SVNS Series matches, including a total of 49 tries.

She is the ninth top points scorer in World Series history, and has split the posts 283 times – the third most of all-time. Her 16 points against Great Britain, and her try-scoring Player of the Final performance in upsetting Australia, were simply immense in Perth this year.

Leaving a lasting legacy behind her, the four times-capped Ireland 15s international has remained the heartbeat of the Sevens team for many seasons.

Their medal haul includes winning the 2022 Krakow Sevens tournament when they finished as Rugby Europe Sevens Championship runners-up for a second time.

It is incredible to think that she coached the Ireland Under-18 Sevens team that won the UK School Games competition back in 2017, and four of those young players, Megan Burns, Eve Higgins, Emily Lane, and Aoibheann Reilly, were on the podium with her in Perth this year.

Although disappointed to bow out of the Olympics on a losing note, and with both Mulhall Rock and Béibhinn Parsons injured, the players and management team each put their heart and soul into what has been a season to remember for the Sevens programme.

Mulhall Rock’s rise back from injury this year admittedly tested her mentally more than anything else before, and she shared tears of joy with David Nucifora, whose own tenure as IRFU Performance Director coincided with her Sevens career, and head coach Allan Temple-Jones when they told her she had made the Olympics squad.

Nucifora was the Women’s team manager for Paris 2024, with his passion, foresight, and focus around the Sevens game and what it could do for Irish Rugby propelling the national teams to new heights.

Before the Olympics, Mulhall Rock praised the departing Australian as ‘a massive part of what we would call the Sevens family’, and said it was ‘amazing’ to share their Olympic qualification with him as ‘there probably wasn’t another person as happy as he was’.

As she prepares to hand over her much-cherished number 9 jersey to a successor, she added: “I’ve met some of the most incredible people through this game and made friends that I know will last my lifetime.

“I’ve also relied on my loved ones more than anyone should ever expect of anyone, and I will forever be grateful to them for helping me live out my dreams.

“I look forward to watching, supporting, and being forever proud of the Ireland Women’s Sevens team and what we stand for.”