RUGBY
Dardis and Ireland still in Olympic contention
By Daire Walsh
IT proved to be a mixed weekend for the Irish men’s and women’s Sevens outfits in their quest for qualification to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Whereas the former kept their hopes alive with a third-place at Colomiers, the latter unfortunately crashed out at the quarter-final of their qualifier tournament in Kazan to eventual champions England. In addition to the winners securing an automatic spot in Tokyo, those who finished second and third respectively will get another opportunity to qualify via next summer’s World Rugby Repechage.
This means Naas native Billy Dardis may yet get a chance to represent Ireland – and the county of Kildare – in the Japanese capital. The former Newbridge College and Terenure College student was previously part of the squad who attempted to make the 2016 games in Rio De Janiero.
That ultimately ended in disappointment for the Green Army, but Dardis remains a pivotal member of the sevens programme three years down the line. Having failed to make a single competitive appearance at the senior grade, he was released by Leinster in 2017.
He has concentrated almost exclusively on his Ireland Sevens duties since then and even captained the side at the 2018 World Cup in San Francisco. It has been a busy year for Dardis & Co, but they enjoyed a dream start to their latest tournament with a 41-0 demolition of Ukraine at Stade Michel Bendichou.
Dardis bagged a try to supplement a brace of conversions and subsequently contributed 10 points in their next pool encounter – a 52-14 triumph at Russia’s expense. The athletic Jordan Conroy secured four tries in a devastating display and was also on target in their final preliminary showdown with Spain.
Dardis also crossed the whitewash, but a 17-17 stalemate was only enough to seal runners-up in Pool B. They comfortably advanced to the last-four with a comprehensive 21-0 win over Germany on Sunday, only for France to have their number in the penultimate round (19-12).
This ensured Ireland couldn’t book a seat to Tokyo in July 2019, though a 26-10 success against Portugal is enough to keep them in the frame. The Ireland women were perilously close to making the last Olympics – only just missing out in a Repechage Tournament held at UCD in June 2016.
They began Pool C of their tournament in Russia like a house on fire, comfortably dispatching the challenges posed by Romania (48-0) and Czech Republic (50-0). Yet, just like their male compatriots, a final pool meeting with Spain halted their progress.
Despite claiming a try through skipper Lucy Mulhall, they suffered a 19-5 reversal. This set-up a Sunday quarter-final against the English at the Central Stadium.
Hannah Tyrrell’s converted try gave Ireland a 7-5 interval cushion, but their arch rivals added 12 points without reply to storm into the next phase. Although this was a disappointing outcome for the squad, further wins over Romania (48-0) and Poland (33-5) propelled Stan McDowell’s side towards a credible fifth-place finish.
Meanwhile, there was good news for Athy’s Martin Moloney when it was confirmed during the week that he will be joining in the Leinster Academy for the 2019/20 season.