Hampered by injuries on day two, Ireland's young guns still battled their way to an impressive fourth place finish at the HSBC Canada Sevens tournament in Vancouver.
Photo Gallery: Nine Debutants For Ireland In Vancouver
It was Ireland's best ever placing in a World Series event as a core team, with some possible stars of the future among the nine debutants involved across Saturday and Sunday.
Munster Academy winger Conor Phillips caught the eye with four tries, while Liam Turner, Mark Roche, Sean Kearns, Gavin Mullin and Shane Jennings all scored two each.
Another Academy talent, Ulster's Ben Moxham, crossed in extra-time to send Ireland into the last-four, handing Hong Kong a nail-biting 12-7 defeat.
However, they came up short against Kenya (38-5) and Great Britain (24-14) in their final games, those scorelines being reflective of the lack of top level Sevens experience in the fledgling Irish squad.
Anthony Eddy's youngsters came to Vancouver with a collective haul of just 22 World Series caps, compared to the Kenyans' 195 and Britain's 255.
So, plenty of valuable lessons learned against Olympic-standard opposition, and they will do it all again in the 2021 World Series season finale in Edmonton next weekend.
Ireland began day two without injured duo Roche and Ed Kelly, meaning Chris Cosgrave, the 13th man, was drafted onto the bench for his World Series bow.
Coached this week by James Topping, the men in green had only three points to spare when they faced Hong Kong in the pool stages, and they fell behind in the rematch to an early Max Denmark try.
Denmark showed his impressive pace and power, shrugging off a series of defenders and getting the ball down despite Jennings' last-ditch challenge. Russell Webb converted.
Captain Bryan Mollen stole a lineout, giving his side a chance to attack the wide channels. As they built momentum, Turner drew a high tackle from Callum McCullough who was promptly sin-binned.
Hong Kong leaked a couple more penalties before Jennings was fed on the left wing and used a big fend to break free and score with six minutes gone. Sean Cribbin's conversion tied things up.
Seven-all is how it stayed, with an intense second half containing very few chances. The freshly-introduced Cosgrave broke and kicked through, but Mullin was unable to control it a few metres out.
Cosgrave tracked back to prevent Webb from scoring at the other end, and a late Irish surge was foiled by a knock-on, at the end of an exhaustive attacking spell.
Into extra-time, Ireland won the toss and retrieved Cribbin's restart kick thanks to good work by Mollen and Niall Comerford.
Mullin and Cosgrave both threaded kicks through, forcing Hong Kong back into their own 22. Comerford put pressure on at the breakdown to win a penalty.
It all paid dividends when Mullin, using some nice footwork, passed out of a tackle for Mollen to set up the decisive score for Moxham, one of three current Ireland Under-20 internationals on show.
It was a one-sided affair in the Cup semi-final unfortunately, Kenya showcasing their power runners and top-class finishing to emerge as convincing 33-point winners.
Willy Ambaka flew in under the posts after just 19 seconds, Daniel Taabu used a hand-off to score in the fourth minute, and Alvin Otieno thundered over from an Ambaka offload.
Phillips was being well marshalled by the Kenyans, who were good value for their 19-0 half-time lead. Levy Amunga tore through a gap for the Shujaa Sevens' fourth try.
Ireland clawed back five points soon after, a couple of nice offloads from Cribbin and Comerford putting Phillips away for a 60-metre run-in from the left.
However, as Irish legs tired on the back of their quarter-final exertions, Kenya closed out a comfortable victory with two more scores from the bulldozing 'Buffa' Otieno and replacement Mark Kwemoi.
The attritional nature of such a high-octane competition struck again when Mullin was ruled out of the bronze final against Britain. That left Topping with just ten fit players.
Britain built the early momentum, taking a 17-7 interval lead with Frederick Roddick, ex-France Sevens international Calum Randle and Paddy Kelly all dotting down.
Ireland's fight-back began past the hooter, a darting run from Phillips getting them into range before Jennings slickly sent the Leinster-capped Turner over, to the left of the posts.
Cribbin converted and also added the extras to a Kearns try, but that came in the last play of the second half. By that stage Britain were out of reach thanks to a second Randle score.
Ireland, who lost Phillips to a HIA, failed to profit from Robbie Fergusson's sin-binning, and Randle scooted clear up the right touchline in the 11th minute.
A last-gasp consolation score was just reward for a valiant Irish effort, replacement Kearns finishing smartly as he slipped past two defenders in the British 22.
https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/1439765207564304387
Ireland began day two without injured duo Roche and Ed Kelly, meaning Chris Cosgrave, the 13th man, was drafted onto the bench for his World Series bow.
Coached this week by James Topping, the men in green had only three points to spare when they faced Hong Kong in the pool stages, and they fell behind in the rematch to an early Max Denmark try.
Denmark showed his impressive pace and power, shrugging off a series of defenders and getting the ball down despite Jennings' last-ditch challenge. Russell Webb converted.
Captain Bryan Mollen stole a lineout, giving his side a chance to attack the wide channels. As they built momentum, Turner drew a high tackle from Callum McCullough who was promptly sin-binned.
Hong Kong leaked a couple more penalties before Jennings was fed on the left wing and used a big fend to break free and score with six minutes gone. Sean Cribbin's conversion tied things up.
Seven-all is how it stayed, with an intense second half containing very few chances. The freshly-introduced Cosgrave broke and kicked through, but Mullin was unable to control it a few metres out.
Cosgrave tracked back to prevent Webb from scoring at the other end, and a late Irish surge was foiled by a knock-on, at the end of an exhaustive attacking spell.
Into extra-time, Ireland won the toss and retrieved Cribbin's restart kick thanks to good work by Mollen and Niall Comerford.
Mullin and Cosgrave both threaded kicks through, forcing Hong Kong back into their own 22. Comerford put pressure on at the breakdown to win a penalty.
It all paid dividends when Mullin, using some nice footwork, passed out of a tackle for Mollen to set up the decisive score for Moxham, one of three current Ireland Under-20 internationals on show.
It was a one-sided affair in the Cup semi-final unfortunately, Kenya showcasing their power runners and top-class finishing to emerge as convincing 33-point winners.
Willy Ambaka flew in under the posts after just 19 seconds, Daniel Taabu used a hand-off to score in the fourth minute, and Alvin Otieno thundered over from an Ambaka offload.
Phillips was being well marshalled by the Kenyans, who were good value for their 19-0 half-time lead. Levy Amunga tore through a gap for the Shujaa Sevens' fourth try.
Ireland clawed back five points soon after, a couple of nice offloads from Cribbin and Comerford putting Phillips away for a 60-metre run-in from the left.
However, as Irish legs tired on the back of their quarter-final exertions, Kenya closed out a comfortable victory with two more scores from the bulldozing 'Buffa' Otieno and replacement Mark Kwemoi.
The attritional nature of such a high-octane competition struck again when Mullin was ruled out of the bronze final against Britain. That left Topping with just ten fit players.
Britain built the early momentum, taking a 17-7 interval lead with Frederick Roddick, ex-France Sevens international Calum Randle and Paddy Kelly all dotting down.
Ireland's fight-back began past the hooter, a darting run from Phillips getting them into range before Jennings slickly sent the Leinster-capped Turner over, to the left of the posts.
Cribbin converted and also added the extras to a Kearns try, but that came in the last play of the second half. By that stage Britain were out of reach thanks to a second Randle score.
Ireland, who lost Phillips to a HIA, failed to profit from Robbie Fergusson's sin-binning, and Randle scooted clear up the right touchline in the 11th minute.
A last-gasp consolation score was just reward for a valiant Irish effort, replacement Kearns finishing smartly as he slipped past two defenders in the British 22.
https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s/status/1439765207564304387