Short Olympic lead-in led to Ireland 7s’ Tokyo drift, says Billy Dardis

The men’s side had to settle for 10th spot in Japan.

IRELAND MEN’s 7s captain Billy Dardis believes the ‘emotional and physical’ toll that qualification took on his team had a large bearing on their frustrating performances at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.

Following a superb triumph at a World Repechage Tournament in Monaco on 20 June, Dardis and his international colleagues made history by becoming the first Irish rugby side to qualify for the Olympics.

Just over a month later – on 26 July, to be exact – Anthony Eddy’s squad began their campaign in the Japanese capital with a group stage defeat to South Africa. They eventually had to settle for a 10th place finish overall and while Dardis initially felt the short build-up to the Summer Games was going to be an advantage for Ireland, it ultimately proved to be a hindrance.

“At the time I was thinking about it as positively as I could,” Dardis says. “We were probably a month ahead of people because we were preparing for Monaco in June, whereas they were preparing for July. I thought we were riding a bit of a wave of momentum going into the Olympics, on the back of Monaco. I thought we were in a good spot.

“The emotional and physical toll that Monaco took, there was a physical and mental hangover from that. We went over there and things just didn’t really click for us. Things weren’t sticking, passes weren’t sticking to hand. It was incredibly frustrating. A real bitter pill to swallow afterwards. I just think with the qualifying tournament being so close to it, it didn’t really help.”

Dardis was speaking yesterday at an event to mark the announcement of Allianz’s three-year partnership with the Olympic Federation of Ireland. This new arrangement is set to span two games; next year’s Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.

While the latter tournament will be a focus for Dardis and the Ireland 7s in time, there is also the small matter of the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town in September 2022.

Since finishing ninth at the most recent edition of this global tournament – held three years ago in San Francisco – the Ireland men have become a core nation on the World Series stage. For previous World Cups, teams could qualify through their results on this circuit with four places being allocated to those who hadn’t already been granted an automatic place in the finals.

However, this is no longer the case and the 16 qualification spots that remain will instead be determined from six continental championships. This isn’t ideal from Dardis’ point of view, but is something that he is willing to embrace nonetheless.

“We were actually quite excited about it being from the World Series because it meant that we have something to play for all year and it actually brings out the best in you. It also would have meant that, come the summer, we might have gotten a bit of a break before the World Cup. So we would have gotten a bit of time off just after the World Series.

“I’m not 100% sure what the process is because we didn’t actually play in Rugby Europe last year. There’s still a bit of uncertainty, but I usually just go with the flow. That’s the brilliant thing about Sevens that I’ve found since I’ve gone into the set-up. Every year, every summer there’s something to play for. We’ve something to try and qualify for.”

After an absence of 18 months, the Ireland Men’s 7s were finally back in World Series action last month with back-to-back tournaments in Vancouver and Edmonton. Dardis featured in the second leg of this Canada Sevens double-header and led out a squad that is very much in transition.

In the wake of the Tokyo Olympics, the likes of Greg O’Shea, Adam Leavy (brother of Leinster and Ireland back-row Dan), Foster Horan and Harry McNulty made the decision to step away from the Sevens programme.

This has opened the door for a plethora of hopefuls, including Chris Cosgrave and Shane Jennings from this year’s Ireland U20s set-up. As strange as it is to see his long-standing team-mates moving onto other challenges – some of them have pursued options outside of sport – he has been reinvigorated by the injection of young blood to the system ahead of the new World Series season kicking off at the end of November.

“There are some really good players. Shane Jennings seems like a young Robbie Henshaw, he seems to have it all. He’s quite a naturally good footballer. I am sure that he’s been made well aware by [Connacht head coach] Andy Friend, who would be familiar with Sevens, that if you play well in Sevens it can put you in a good spot for 15s.

“I think we have seen that with the likes of Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O’Brien, Rob Baloucoune, Shane Daly and Nick Timoney. For young lads who have come into the system over the last few months, hopefully they can look at them for some inspiration in and around what you can get out of Sevens over the next few months.

“Hopefully they can get some World Series experience. It’s pretty tough in the World Series and the more experience they can get at that level the better,” Dardis added.

Daire Walsh