\uf0d8 Target of Qualification for IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2013<\/p>\n
\uf0d8 13 Week Elite Training Programme With Entry to 3 Competitive Tournaments<\/p>\n
\uf0d8 21 Player Squad Announced to Take Part in Training Programme<\/p>\n
\uf0d8 Entry to FIRA qualification process for Rugby World Cup Sevens Championship to Build Sevens Culture<\/p>\n
The Irish Rugby Football Union today announced details of the Ireland Women\u2019s Sevens structures as the Ireland Team begin the journey that will hopefully end in qualification for the IRB 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Moscow.<\/p>\n
The process began with an interprovincial blitz at the beginning of April that acted as an initial talent screening day to assess the players capabilities and adaptability to the sevens game.<\/p>\n
Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster and the Exiles all took part in the blitz to allow newly appointed Women\u2019s Sevens Coach Jon Skurr to view the top players and make a decision on a reduced 21 player training and competition squad. Gemma Crowley, who is the fifteen-a-side Women\u2019s Team Manager, will also work with the Sevens panel over their extended preparations.<\/p>\n
In addition to the programme and structures for the Women\u2019s team, the IRFU Club Sevens competitions, which were announced recently, are also part of the long term women\u2019s sevens programme to continue to build a sustainable sevens culture in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Jon Skurr, who coached the Ireland Men\u2019s Team in the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai, has selected an elite squad of 21 players which he will work with through weekend camps and rotate through three warm up tournaments in Kinsale, Amsterdam and Bournemouth during May and June.<\/p>\n
The squad are already two weeks into the training programme and contains a number of experienced members of the Women’s Team that competed strongly in this season’s RBS 6 Nations Championship. It includes Ireland’s most capped player Lynne Cantwell, versatile back Amy Davis and strong running number 8 Joy Neville as well as a number of players who made the breakthrough at international level recently such as Ashleigh Baxter.<\/p>\n
The IRFU yesterday received confirmation from FIRA of the Ireland Team\u2019s entry to the European competitions that will give countries qualification for the IRB 2013 Sevens Rugby World Cup in Moscow. The qualifying schedule begins with a tournament in Ghent, Belgium from June 8th \u2013 10th and includes strong opposition with Scotland, Poland, Georgia and Belgium seen as the main contenders.<\/p>\n
The Ireland Team will need to have a top two finish in that competition to progress to the final European qualifying tournament. This will take place in Moscow from June 28th \u2013 July 1st, with only the top five teams going through to the World Championships the following year in the same venue.<\/p>\n
Fiona Coghlan, Captain of the fifteen-a-side Ireland Team, who is currently recovering from injury, said, \u201cThis is a great step forward that the IRFU have taken for the women\u2019s game and hopefully we can bring some of our recent good form and success from the fifteen-a-side game to sevens. It is a totally different type of game in terms of physical preparation and tactics, but hopefully at the end of the training camps and tournaments, we will know how far this can take us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Walker, IRFU Director of Rugby Development and the Club Game said: \u201cIreland has a small pool of women players and one concern has always been about maximising the competitiveness of the team, while balancing the physical and personal demands on an extremely talented generation of amateur players. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe results of the women\u2019s team have been particularly encouraging, especially this season where they played an exciting brand of rugby, so this opportunity of beginning a successful sevens culture was one that was presented to the women\u2019s panels in the four provinces. We were delighted with the response and the numbers who were willing to commit to what is an intensive programme, especially for players who are not training full time. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe programme is a reflection of the preparation of other competing nations, who have less strong rugby traditions but have committed to the sevens game under their own Olympic elite organisation programmes and support structures. The women\u2019s squad have begun their preparations which will hopefully culminate with qualification for the World Sevens next year, with a view to looking at future Olympic participation.” <\/p>\n
Ireland Women\u2019s Sevens Squad *:
\nAshleigh Baxter (Belfast Harlequins\/Ulster)
\nLynne Cantwell (Richmond\/Exiles)
\nNikki Caughey (Belfast Harlequins\/Ulster)
\nAmy Davis (Blackrock College RFC\/Leinster)
\nJeannette Feighery (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\nShannon Houston (Blackrock College RFC\/Leinster)
\nAshling Hutchings (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\nNiamh Kavanagh (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\nClaire Keohane (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\nAlison Miller (Portlaoise\/Connacht)
\nClaire Molloy (Bristol RFC\/Exiles\/Connacht)
\nJacqueline Mulligan (Sligo\/Connacht)
\nJennifer Murphy (Richmond\/Exiles)
\nJoy Neville (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\n\u00c1ine N\u00ed Chath\u00e1in (Garda RFC\/Leinster)
\nMollie O’Donnell (UL Bohemians\/Munster)
\nLaura O’Mahony (Tralee\/Munster)
\nBeth O’Brien (Oxford University\/Exiles)
\nRachael Potter (Saracens\/Exiles)
\nMeadhbh Westwood (Waterloo\/Exiles)<\/p>\n
*Final player to be confirmed following April training camps.<\/p>\n
Management:
\nCoach – Jon Skurr
\nManager – Gemma Crowley
\nPhysiotherapist – Dr. Ulrik McCarthy Persson
\nPhysiotherapist – Dom Hoban
\nS&C Coach – Ross Callaghan
\nAnalyst – Gillian Burke
\nNutritionist – Ruth Kilcawley
\nSquad Coordinator – Jean Casey<\/p>\n
Ireland Women\u2019s Sevens Schedule:
\nDate\/Event
\nApril 6th: Interprovincial competition\/screening (65 players)
\nApril 13th – 28th: Weekend training camps (21 players)
\nMay 4th – 6th: Kinsale Sevens (12 players)
\nMay 12th – 13th: Camp (21 players)
\nMay 18th – 20th: Amsterdam Sevens (12 players)
\nMay 26th – 27th: Camp (21 players)
\nJune 1st – 3rd: Bournemouth Sevens (12 players)
\nJune 8th – 10th: FIRA Qualifying, Ghent, Belgium (12 players)
\nJune 23rd: Camp (14 players)
\nJune 28th – July 1st: FIRA Qualifying, Moscow (12 players)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\uf0d8 Target of Qualification for IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2013 \uf0d8 13 Week Elite Training Programme With Entry to 3 Competitive Tournaments \uf0d8 21 Player Squad Announced to Take Part in Training Programme \uf0d8 Entry to FIRA qualification process for Rugby World Cup Sevens Championship to Build Sevens Culture The Irish Rugby Football […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5800,4050,2931,5081,10000,4979,5957],"class_list":["post-26033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irish-rugby","tag-announce","tag-ireland","tag-irfu","tag-sevens","tag-structures","tag-team","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26037,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26033\/revisions\/26037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}