Director of Sevens Rugby Anthony Eddy has finalised the Ireland Men’s Sevens squad to compete at the Olympic Repechage in Monaco this weekend.
The overall winner will claim the final Men’s Sevens spot at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
They have been drawn into Pool A which is one of the most challenging groups featuring Samoa, who claimed the Paris stage of the World Rugby Sevens Series last May, as well as Tonga and Zimbabwe.
The team go into the tournament off the back of a successful weekend at the Rugby Europe Trophy competition in Malmö in Sweden. They beat hosts Sweden 57-0 in the final to claim top spot in the first leg of the Trophy competition.
The 12 man squad, which will be captained by Lansdowne and Leinster Academy’s Tom Daly, contains fellow Leinster Academy players Adam Byrne, Billy Dardis and Ian Fitzpatrick. Byrne and Dardis are joined in the squad by their UCD teammates Barry Daly and Harry McNulty.
Munster Academy players Dan Goggin and Alex Wootton are named in the side, as as is Josh Rowland, who has been involved with the Sevens panel for a number of weeks.
Buccaneers’ Shane Layden, St. Mary’s RFC’s Steve Toal-Lennon and Clontarf’s Mick McGrath, who was top try scorer in the Ulster Bank League this season, complete the squad.
Speaking ahead of the team departing to Monaco, Anthony Eddy said;
“The side have been developing well over the past number of months and last weekend’s result in Malmö shows that we have a talented group of players in our squad.
This competition is going to be a big challenge. Obviously every team is there to win and be rewarded with the final position in Rio. We’ve been drawn with Samoa, who are certainly one of the favourites in the competition, also in our pool are Tonga and Zimbabwe and they have a lot of 7s experience.
Ireland Mens 7s Squad – Monaco Sevens Repechage
Adam Byrne – UCD / Leinster
Tom Daly – Lansdowne FC / Leinster
Barry Daly – UCD
Billy Dardis – UCD / Leinster
Ian Fitzpatrick – Lansdowne FC / Leinster
Dan Goggin –Young Munster / Munster
Shane Layden – Buccaneers
Mick McGrath – Clontarf FC
Harry McNulty – UCD
Josh Rowland – Ireland Sevens
Steve Toal-Lennon – St. Mary’s RFC
Alex Wootton – Garryowen / Munster
Ireland Men’s 7s Squad Fixtures – Monaco Sevens Repechage – Stade Louis II, Monaco
Saturday 18th June 2016
Ireland 7s v Zimbabwe 7s – 11.22am (local time) / 10.22am (Irish time)
Ireland 7s v Samoa 7s – 2.15pm (local time) / 1.15pm (Irish time)
Ireland 7s v Tonga 7s – 5.30pm (local time) / 4.30pm (Irish time)
Sunday 19th June 2016
Play-offs
The games will be streamed live via www.worldrugby.org
Follow @IrishRugby on Twitter for all the updates from Monaco
