LACEY lands Rugby World Cup call-up
By Daire Walsh
THE weekend of August 22/23 will be an important one for women’s rugby in Ireland, as a major World Rugby Women’s Sevens tournament is set to take place in the nation for the very first time.
‘Women’s Sevens Dublin’ will take place over two days in UCD next month, and this should serve as ideal preparation for the Irish side, who are aiming to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.
The IRFU were chosen as the hosts for this World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series qualifier, which sees 12 teams competing for the two remaining places on the hotly-anticipated 2015/16 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series.
As well as Celtic counterparts Wales, Ireland will also compete against Brazil, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Samoa, Netherlands and South Africa.
With the college also set to jointly host the World Cup in two years’ time, this will be yet another step in the right direction for the rapidly progressing sport of women’s rugby in Ireland.
The forthcoming World Cup could well be a generation-defining competition for the senior men’s team, but it will also be a pivotal one for a brace of homegrown officials.
It was announced by World Rugby in the past week that George Clancy and John Lacey (brother of former Kildare footballer Brian) will referee three games apiece during the pool stages of the Rugby World Cup in the UK.
Clancy will take charge of Italy’s encounter with Canada, as well as the matches involving Samoa & USA, and Namibia versus Georgia. Lacey is also expected to be a busy man in the opening weeks of the finals, as he officiates ties featuring three high-profile rugby nations.
Scotland versus Japan, Wales versus Fiji and New Zealand versus Tonga will be supervised by the Tipperary native, but he will also act as assistant referee for the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2015 on Friday, September 18, when hosts England are in action against Fiji.
Indeed, this recent batch of announcments also provided the Irish squad with a clearer picture of how their own games will be adjudicated, as the respective referees for their four pool fixtures were also revealed.
Glen Jackson of New Zealand and Craig Joubert of South Africa will be at the helm for the games with Canada and Romania on September 19 and September 27, and after French whistler Jérôme Garcès assumes control of the test with Italy in the Olympic Stadium on October 4, highly-respected Welsh official Nigel Owens will be the man in the middle for the crunch clash against France a week later.
Elsewhere, Ireland received a significant boost in their bid to bring the 2023 Rugby World Cup to these shores, when USA Rugby decided against putting forward a bid to host the global tournament.
This means that only four countries (Ireland, South Africa, Italy and France) have formally confirmed their interest for 2023, but we will have to wait until May 2017 before the host nation is finally unveiled.