The Ireland Women improved with each game as they were crowned Plate champions at the first leg of the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Grand Prix Series in Kazan, Russia.
Having lost their two opening matches to Spain and France yesterday, Ireland bounced back to win three of their next four fixtures at the Tuplar Sports Complex and secure a confidence-boosting fifth place finish.
Luck was not on their side when they leaked a try in the last play of this morning’s Cup quarter-final against England, going down 17-14 despite playing the better rugby against Women’s Sevens World Series opposition.
But Lucy Mulhall and her team-mates recovered well to sweep Italy aside on a 31-5 scoreline, and they then edged out the Netherlands 14-10 in a gripping Plate decider where first half converted tries from Alison Miller and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe proved crucial.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Anthony Eddy, head coach and IRFU Director of Rugby Sevens, said: “The standard of the competition was particularly high with many teams having World Series experience. It was certainly a step up for us and the team performed well over the two days.
“It’s a tremendous learning curve for the team and the performance on day 2 was very pleasing. I’m sure the team has developed some confidence from this tournament and we look forward to the second European Grand Prix event next week (in France).”…………… for the full story go to >> http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/34808.php#.VX3hhPlVikp
