Ireland men’s rugby sevens head coach James Topping says it was probably “unfair” on Hugo Keenan to have a short build-up for the Olympic Games. Ireland signed-off their involvement in the men’s sevens at the Paris Olympics with a 17-7 defeat to New Zealand at the Stade de France to leave them with a sixth-place overall finish. The 10-point margin of defeat was their heaviest loss at these Games and their second defeat in two days to New Zealand.
It was Keenan’s creativity that set up Chay Mullins for the only try that Ireland scored against New Zealand today which gave them a 7-5 half-time lead. But New Zealand scored two more tries in the second-half to seal a fifth-place finish.
Leinster and Ireland full-back Keenan only switched back from the 15s to the sevens in May after Leinster’s Champions Cup final.
“A lot of these guys can play it because they’re just programmed now and they know where to be, they know where to go. Whereas he [Keenan] had a thinking period where he had to try and figure it all out again. So, it is maybe a touch unfair,” Topping said after their defeat to New Zealand.
“You can see there is a definite skill-set difference between the sevens player and the 15-a-side. But another few tournaments, he probably fits right in. But I thought against New Zealand in the first game he was excellent. The work he did around the ball, winning breakdowns, and that’s the sort of player that he is, he just works so hard for the team.”
Ireland’s sixth-place finish is an improvement on their 10th place from the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. With David Humphreys taking over from David Nucifora as IRFU performance director, Topping hopes there are further improvements to come in the sevens programme as part of the Paris legacy.
“Let’s try and get a proper Olympic programme started earlier. A lot of the time we’re playing in the World Series trying to get the players and we’ve been fortunate enough a lot of guys have been in for a long time with the squad and then that’s been their goal. They’re going to move on though. So we want to train these guys and get players here you know, maybe starting off now for the next four year cycle,” Topping added.
“We’re sort of working from the top down – we’ve got a national sevens team, but we don’t have any really below. I’m just sure there’s another pathway for players to plan on.”
The end of an Olympic cycle means there’s set to be a few changes in the set-up with captain Harry McNulty admitting he will take time to consider his future. He would like to see a sevens event staged in Ireland.
“I want to be able to hopefully bring a sevens to Ireland, an event there. Yeah, I think that would be huge. I think you would see a full stadium of Irish people in a heartbeat. I just think it would be great for the game. I would like to see the development of the sevens game. It’s just the one area where we haven’t had an opportunity to develop the program. It’s only been around for nine years,” McNulty said.
Earlier, a late Terry Kennedy try clinched a 17-14 win over the USA to ensure Ireland had a shot at New Zealand in the fifth/sixth place game. So this defeat ends the men’s Olympic campaign in Paris. They opened with wins over South Africa and Japan on Wednesday. Thursday’s games proved their undoing with New Zealand coming from behind to grab a 14-12 win which meant Ireland had to face two-time Olympic champions Fiji in the quarter-final. Ireland lost that 19-15. They looked tired in the final game against New Zealand but McNulty was proud of his team.
“Proud, very proud. Yeah, you want to be in the medals and all that. But I think if you look across the board where different teams finished and all that, it never really is a reflection of how good teams are, depending on where they finish today. New Zealand won all three games in the pool and then lost in the quarters. Argentina lost in the quarters. They won the series.
“We lost by a couple of points to Fiji. It’s so tight. It’s all so close. So, you can get bogged down in all of it, can you win this? Can you win that? But like, at the end of the day, I’m getting so many messages from people who are so proud of us.”
The Ireland women’s sevens team make their Olympic debut on Sunday. They play Great Britain in their first pool game at 2.30pm Irish time followed by South Africa at 6pm Irish time.
Ireland: J Kelly, H McNulty, M Roche, C Mullins, H Keenan, T Kennedy, B Mollen. Replacements: Z Ward, H Lennox, G Mullin, N Comerford, S Cribbin.
New Zealand: S Curry, T Ng Shiu, A Rokolisoa, D Collier, M Leo, L Carter, J Webber. Replacements: B Rush, F Fineanganofo, A Knewstubb, T Cook-Savage, S Molia
Referee: G Gnecchi (ITA)