Ireland name their 2023/24 men’s and women’s sevens squads
James Topping and Allan Temple-Jones have named their respective men’s and women’s sevens squads for the 2023/24 season which begins in Dubai in December and continues through to the Olympic Games in Paris in July.
Terry Kennedy, the World Rugby sevens players of the year for 2022, is back in the mix after his year away from Topping’s squad, while Vikki Wall, a two-time Gaelic football All-Ireland winner and Aussie rules player, has been included by Temple-Jones after joining the sevens programme in August.
A statement read: “The Ireland men's and women's sevens squads, sponsored by TritonLake, have been announced for the 2024 season. With just two weeks to go until the HSBC SVNS season opener in Dubai, men's head coach James Topping and women's head coach Allan Temple-Jones have confirmed their 19-player centralised squads as the build-up to the 2024 Olympics begins in earnest.
“The new-look HSBC SVNS Series kicks off at the Dubai Sevens Stadium from December 2-3, the first of eight double-header tournaments culminating in the first ever Grand Final in Madrid in May.
“Both Ireland squads have already secured qualification for Paris 2024, Temple-Jones' side doing so through last season's World Series, while the Ireland men booked their Olympic ticket by winning last summer's European Games in Krakow.
“Harry McNulty has been confirmed as the men's sevens captain, while Lucy Mulhall will lead the women's sevens. There are nine Olympians from Tokyo 2020 included in the men's sevens panel with Terry Kennedy – the World Rugby men's sevens player of the year 2022 – returning to the centralised squad after a year out last season.
“Mulhall captains an experienced women's squad as they prepare for their debut Olympic appearance, while Alanna Fitzpatrick and Amy Larn have been rewarded with national sevens contracts for the first time having progressed through the high performance pathway, most recently winning their senior debuts at Rugby Europe in Hamburg last July.
“Vikki Wall, the two-time All-Ireland football championship winner with Meath who also enjoyed a spell in the AFLW with North Melbourne, has been in the national sevens programme since August, featuring in pre-season tournaments in Dublin and Elche.
“The Ireland men's and women's sevens squads for Dubai will be announced next week, while men's and women's development teams will also travel to Dubai to compete in the International Invitational Tournament, providing all players in the programme with access to early-season game time.
“From Dubai, the HSBC SVNS 2024 moves on to Cape Town (December 9-10) before Perth takes centre stage from January 26-28. All SVNS tournaments will be played as combined men's and women's events, with Vancouver (February 23-25), Los Angeles (March 2-3), Hong Kong (April 5-7) and Singapore (May 3-5) preceding the Grand Final in Madrid (May 31-June 2).”
Topping said: "It has been a very positive pre-season period for the squad as we have got through a good body of work here at the IRFU high performance centre, whilst also testing ourselves in match situations in Elche and most recently in Malaga.
"We have strong experience in our centralised squad and competition for places will be high throughout the season as we build towards Paris 2024. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead but the focus now is for us to achieve progression and consistency in our performances, starting at the HSBC SVNS Series opener in Dubai."
Temple-Jones added: "We are delighted to confirm the centralised squad ahead of a significant season for the Ireland Sevens programme. The players have worked hard during a long pre-season period and I know the entire group are relishing the challenges ahead, determined to maximise our potential on the world and Olympic stage."
Ireland men's sevens 2024 squad: Niall Comerford, Jordan Conroy, Sean Cribbin, Billy Dardis, Ed Kelly, Jack Kelly, Terry Kennedy, JJ Kenny, Hugo Lennox, Matt McDonald, Harry McNulty, Bryan Mollen, Gavin Mullin, Chay Mullins, Dylan O'Grady, Aaron O'Sullivan, Connor O'Sullivan, Mark Roche, Zac Ward.
Ireland women's sevens 2024 squad: Kathy Baker, Claire Boles, Megan Burns, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Alanna Fitzpatrick, Stacey Flood, Eve Higgins, Katie Heffernan, Erin King, Lucinda Kinghan, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Emily Lane, Amy Larn, Kate Farrell McCabe, Anna McGann, Lucy Mulhall, Beibhinn Parsons, Aoibheann Reilly, Vikki Wall.
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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