Mulhall To Captain Ireland Women’s Sevens Team In Amsterdam

The Ireland Women’s squad will be captained by Lucy Mulhall who last week won the IRUPA Women’s Sevens Player of the Year award for 2015.

The selected side includes four players who recently won the Women’s RBS 6 Nations title with Ireland’s 15-a-side team – Jenny Murphy, Alison Miller, Claire Molloy and Katie Fitzhenry.

Ireland have been drawn in a pool with Ushizi Warriors (a Dutch-Swiss selection), the Finland national team and the Norwegian Vikingettes.

The Women’s Sevens Silver Pier competition in Amsterdam also includes other national teams from the likes of Brazil (development), France (development), the Netherlands (development), Germany, Poland, Romania, Scotland and Switzerland.

Speaking ahead of the tournament, Anthony Eddy, IRFU Director of Rugby Sevens, said: “It’s important for the squad to get competition time ahead of the European Championship in June. This is the beginning of the journey to qualification for the Olympics in Rio 2016.

“As a squad we are very clear and focused on what we need to do over the next few months. Everyone has worked really hard and knows it’s time to put in the performances and deliver.”

IRELAND WOMEN’S SEVENS SQUAD (2015 Amsterdam Sevens – Women’s Silver Pier Tournament, May 23-24, National Rugby Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands):

Eimear Considine
Katie Fitzhenry
Stacey Flood
Louise Galvin
Shannon Houston
Claire Keohane
Alison Miller
Claire Molloy
Lucy Mulhall (capt)
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe
Emma Murphy
Jenny Murphy

IRELAND WOMEN’S FIXTURES –

Saturday, May 23:

Ireland v Ushizi Warriors, 10.20am local time/9.20am Irish time
Ireland v Finland, 12.40pm local time/11.40am Irish time 
Ireland v Norwegian Vikingettes, 3.20pm local time/2.20pm Irish time
 
Sunday, May 24:

Play-Offs
 
Women’s Sevens Olympic Qualification Process For Rio 2016 –

1. The top four teams in the World Series will automatically gain Olympic qualification. This will be decided at the final leg of the World Series being held on May 23-24 in Amsterdam. The current top four standings are New Zealand, Canada, Australia and USA.

2. There will be six regional qualifiers held during June and July 2015. The winners from each of these will qualify for the Olympics.

3. The last qualification place will be awarded to the winners of the World Repechage tournament which will be held in 2016.

4. Brazil automatically qualifies as the host nation and gets the 12th spot.

Ireland’s Olympic Qualification Process For Rio 2016 –

1. As the Ireland Women’s Sevens team are not in the World Series, the route to the Olympics is through the regional qualifiers for Europe. This year’s European Championship will be held over two consecutive weekends (Russia, June 13-14, and France, June 20-21). The winning side qualifies for the Olympics.

2. If Ireland does not win the 2015 European Championship, qualification is possible in 2016 through the 2016 World Repechage. To qualify for the World Repechage, Ireland must:

(a) Finish as runners-up of the 2015 European Championship or
(b) Finish in the top three of the European Repechage (Lisbon, July 2015)

The winners of the 2016 World Repechage will qualify for the Olympics.