RUGBY COLUMN – JULY 18
By Daire Walsh
IT was a memorable weekend for the Kildare triumvirate of Billy Dardis, Jimmy O’Brien and Fionn Carr, who were part of the Ireland Men’s Sevens squad that secured their place in next year’s World Cup in San Francisco with a third-place finish in the final round of the Europe Grand Prix Series.
Ireland were competing for the final two European spots for the 2018 competition along with Russia and Spain, and they made an ideal start to their pool on Saturday against Portugal at Exeter. As captain of the side, Dardis was an automatic choice in the starting line-up, where he was joined by fellow Naas native Carr.
O’Brien was included amongst the replacements, but with his try being supplemented by similar scores from Jordan Conroy, Nick Timoney, Harry McNulty, John O’Donnell and Hugo Keenan, Ireland dominated their opening game of the tournament.
Dardis contributed a conversion to Ireland’s tally, and thanks to an additional four points from the boot of Mark Roche, Ireland ultimately claimed a 36-7 victory. Carr and Dardis were rested for the next pool encounter against Belgium, but Eadestown’s O’Brien was given a chance to impress in their absence from the starting fifteen.
He recorded two tries in another accomplished display for Anthony Eddy’s charges, while Conroy, Roche, Keenan and Ian Fitzpatrick also crossed over in a 40-7 success.
Dardis also added a conversion from the bench, as Ireland set themselves up perfectly for their final group game with France. The outstanding Conroy (who play for Buccaneers in this season’s Ulster Bank League) registered a brace of tries for the in-form Green Army, and courtesy of subsequent touchdowns by Fitzpatrick and O’Brien – his fourth in just three games – Ireland found themselves in the driving seat.
Dardis increased his own personal haul with four points from bonus kicks (which are drop goal attempts in Sevens competitions), and this ensured that Ireland set-up a Sunday morning quarter-final against hosts England.
Given the relative inexperience of their opponents, Ireland were hot favourites to come out on top from this last-eight affair. However, England developed an early advantage in the home of the Aviva Premiership champions, and it took a stoppage-time try from Conroy to bring their deficit down to two points (7-5) in time for the short interval.
This score proved to be the catalyst for a dominant second-half performance, and with UCD’s Keenan stepping up to the mark, they created serious daylight between themselves and the English. Dardis (who was recently released by Leinster) once again amassed four points, and this helped Ireland to eventually prevail on a 24-7 scoreline.
This moved Ireland a step closer to World Cup qualification, but it was officially confirmed when Spain suffered a shock quarter-final loss to Portugal. They missed out on a chance to secure top honours as a result of their 12-15 semi-final reversal to Wales, but they made amends with a commanding 33-12 triumph in a Bronze Medal showdown with Portugal.