The Ireland Women's Sevens team, sponsored by TritonLake, opened the Krakow 7s with two wins ahead of tomorrow's showdown with hosts Poland, the winners of last week's first leg of the Rugby Europe Sevens Championship.
Poland and Ireland are sitting first and second respectively in Pool A following the first two rounds of matches. The top two teams in each pool will qualify for Sunday's semi-finals.
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Stacey Flood and talented teenager Erin King all returned to action for the girls in green who had two solid but scrappy performances in beating Czechia 40-12 and Romania 38-7.
There was little over a minute gone in the Czechia game when Murphy Crowe opened her account, slipping out of a tackle outside the opposition 22 and darting clear of another defender. Captain Lucy Mulhall converted.
Julie Dolezilova brought Czechia level with a try from her own turnover, before Mulhall released Anna McGann for a well-finished converted score from 70 metres out.
Ireland kept the tempo high closing in on half-time and were rewarded with a late third try, Mulhall stepping off her right to get past Dolezilova and squeeze over the conversion for a 21-7 lead.
A kick through from Flood caused trouble for Czechia on the restart, Murphy Crowe pouncing on a defensive error to score. Tereza Bathova was quick to respond with a fine effort from her own half.
However, Ireland put together two more tries to seal the result, Eve Higgins expertly taking down the restart, sidestepping a defender and darting clear to cross to the left of the posts.
Maeve Liston then came off the bench and lobbed a pass over the top for fellow replacement Megan Burns to touch down. Mulhall converted and Czechia were unable to capitalise on King's late sin-binning.
Temperatures of 30-plus degrees meant it was a real squad effort for all the competing teams, and Ireland coach Aiden McNulty unsurprisingly made a number of changes for the second round clash with Romania.
Pinning Romania back inside their own 22, Enya Breen forced a turnover penalty in the third minute and McGann took it quickly to run in the opening try which Breen converted.
The Romanians got back on level terms in swift fashion, though, as captain Emilia Vitiziu threw a dummy pass, broke downfield and sent Elena Juncanariu away to score a well-crafted seven-pointer.
Good running and offloading from Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Liston and Claire Boles saw Ireland take a 14-7 lead into the break. The attack ended with Lucinda Kinghan putting McGann in behind the posts.
Murphy Crowe got on the scoresheet in the 10th minute, set free for the line by Higgins' pass just before a tackle. Higgins then reacted quickest to a bouncing restart from Breen, weaving her way over to make it 26-7.
Profiting from a Mulhall turnover, replacement Katie Heffernan's nicely-floated pass allowed Murphy Crowe to complete her brace. There was still time for Flood to add a sixth try, with Kinghan supplying her second assist.
McNulty’s charges, who are building towards the Rugby World Cup Sevens European qualifying tournament in mid-July, go head-to-head with Lisbon champions Poland (9am Irish time) and Germany (11.56am) tomorrow.
You can follow all the action live on Rugby Europe TV - click here for details.
Solid Start For Ireland Women At Krakow 7s
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1st July 2022
