Ireland Women’s Sevens sitting pretty in Olympic qualification spots

Just shy of the halfway point of the World Series, the Irish Women’s Sevens outfit has their Olympic destiny in their own hands after coming fourth in Hamilton over the weekend.

With four events left, Ireland are fourth on the overall standings, occupying the final automatic qualification spot for Paris 2024.

They ended their weekend in New Zealand with back-to-back defeats to the hosts and Australia in the semi-final and third-place playoff respectively, but enough positive signs were shown to suggest they will continue to be competitive as the series moves on to Sydney next weekend.

In the quarter-final win over France, Beibhinn Parsons notched a double while Eve Higgins led a defensive display that shut the door on any French hopes of a comeback. Parsons also scored a double in the bronze medal defeat to Australia, five tries her final tally over the weekend which also saw a win over Spain in the pool stages.

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Ireland’s men finished in sixth, losing the fifth-place playoff to Australia due to the concession of two second-half tries. The weekend saw the return of World Player of the Year Terry Kennedy, who scored a pair of tries in his first competition since last year’s World Cup.

The men are ninth in the overall standings with seven events to go. Again, the top four automatically achieve Olympic qualification.

Jenkins return key for Leinster

Jason Jenkins’s fitness could well be vital to Leinster’s prospects of European success in a number of months’ time.

Plenty of column inches have been dedicated to the additional power he brings, something that Leinster have at times lacked in knockout matches. That point was only further proved over the last fortnight of European action.

When watching Leinster of late, one marvels at their ability to work past deficiencies to still rack up high point tallies. Still, those deficiencies are there, notably the lineout maul and scrum.

Across the two recent matches against Gloucester and Racing, with Jenkins currently out injured, Leinster conceded three scores from mauls, responding with two of their own, one in each fixture.

Jenkins has played nine matches this season, starting eight of them. He has not featured since the win over Racing in Le Havre in December. Leinster’s attacking maul has been proficient both with and without him; seven maul tries scored with him on the park, eight without.

The defensive maul numbers are more stark; five tries conceded without him, two with and one of those came when the Leinster pack was down a man against Ulster.

Tries scored and conceded is a crude statistic, especially given these small sample sizes. Yet a potential trend, one worth keeping an eye on, has started developing.

Consider then how Ulster’s maul – Leinster’s last-16 opponents – was critical to their revival against Sale. When Leinster played the northern province in September, Leinster were dominant in that set-piece for the hour where Jenkins was on the park; they were dominated without him.

Mauls alone don’t win matches, and Jenkins alone is not the key to Leinster having a proficient catch and drive, but they are significant factors. Add in Leinster’s at-times creaking scrum – another area in which Jenkins could well help – and there is enough for teams like Ulster to target.

Jenkins showed the extra edge he brings before his injury. If we didn’t know before, the European action displayed how necessary it will be when better sides than Racing come calling.

Kay Bowen Cup

St Brigid’s Day will see this year’s edition of the Kay Bowen Cup take place in Galway.

On February 1st, 15 teams from universities across the country will compete in the tournament named after the famed rugby administrator – Bowen was named the president of DURFC (Trinity) in 2011, becoming the first woman to do the honour at collegiate level in Ireland.

In all, 12 clubs will be represented in both 15-a-side and sevens competition. A total of 275 players are expected to take place, 350 attendees in total including management, physios and referees.

Galway, UCD, TUS Midlands, DCU, Trinity, SETU Carlow, UCC, UL, Ulster, Maynooth, SETU Waterford and Queen’s are the academic institutions that will send teams to the tournament.

Long-time sponsor Maxol continues to support the event, which is back into an annual rotation after being forced to pause during the pandemic. The first iteration of the Kay Bowen Cup took place in 2012.

In words

“There’s nothing on paper that says we should win that game and we’ll take that.” Ulster boss Dan McFarland on the prospect of a last-16 Champions Cup clash with Leinster.

In numbers: 3

A prop hat-trick, the number of tries scored by Finlay Bealham during Connacht’s defeat to Newcastle.