The Ireland Women (sponsored by TritonLake) will head into the final day of the HSBC SVNS Series tournament in Perth right in the medal hunt, following a well-judged 14-12 Cup quarter-final win over Fiji.
Having finished sixth and seventh at this season's opening two legs, this has been a strong start to 2024 for Ireland whose last top four finish was also on Australian soil, at last January's Sydney Sevens.
A Béibhinn Parsons hat-trick inspired their 26-7 victory over Japan, sealing their progress as Pool C runners-up, and Eve Higgins and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe - with her fourth score of the weekend - both touched down to see off the challenge of fourth-ranked Fiji.
Meath Gaelic football star Vikki Wall made her Ireland Sevens debut in the Japan game, playing as a forward and getting the full first half under her belt in sweltering conditions.
Allan Temple-Jones' charges had lost their last five Cup quarter-finals, including a two-point loss to Canada at the Dubai season's opener, but they look to be finding form at the start of an Olympic year.
Captained by the newly-married Lucy Mulhall, the girls in green will play Great Britain in tomorrow's semi-finals (kick-off 12.22pm local time/4.22am Irish time - live on RugbyPass TV). The winners will go for gold against either hosts Australia or the USA.
https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1751174650397147559
You can watch all of the HSBC SVNS Series action for free on RugbyPass TV, while there is coverage of Ireland's progress in Perth across the new @Ireland7s social media channels and in our Ireland Sevens hub: irishrugby.ie/ireland7s.
Ireland dominated possession early on against Japan, with Stacey Flood taking a quick tap to get them into scoring range. Wall carried twice, offloading neatly to keep the attack going and Mulhall did likewise to send Parsons over in the third minute.
Mulhall converted and also added the extras to Parsons' second effort, as she beat the rush defence to score from her skipper's pass. Murphy Crowe also did well in the build-up to retrieve a Flood kick, with the supporting Wall getting in to play scrum half.
A brilliant breakaway try from Honoka Tsutsumi halved the deficit for Japan to 14-7 by half-time, and Ireland suffered an early setback in the second half when Megan Burns was sin-binned for what was deemed a deliberate knock-on.
Murphy Crowe and Emily Lane made their tackles out wide to prevent the Japanese from scoring, and the girls in green soon got the scoreboard moving again. Smart work from Flood with a fend and a nicely-timed pass catapulted Parsons away to score from her own 22.
With the lead out to 21-7, Flood increased her influence at the breakdown to force a knock-on. Both sides were pulled back for knocks-on when on the attack, before replacement Higgins, combining swiftly with Mulhall, accelerated clear from halfway to score past the final hooter.
Ireland and Fiji faced off in the first of the afternoon's quarter-finals, with an even three wins each in the last six meetings. The Fijians enjoyed the early territory and Younis Bese popped an inviting offload off the ground for Talei Wilson to cross in the right corner.
Mulhall went quickly from a penalty, showing her side's urgency, and although Fiji were getting the decisions at the breakdown, Ireland held onto the field position thanks to Lane and Parsons's tackling which drew successive knock-ons.
The possession was clinically turned into a sixth-minute score as Flood unloaded her box of tricks to outfox the Fijian defence in midfield.
The Dubliner stepped inside one defender and shrugged off two more attempted tackles, bursting through and holding off Adi Vani Buleki to put Higgins in behind the posts with a deft offload. Mulhall converted to nudge Ireland ahead.
One final lineout before the interval allowed them to extend their lead to nine points. Burns had to scramble to retain possession on halfway, as Fiji hared up defence. But Mulhall and Flood spotted space on the left and unleashed Murphy Crowe to burn past the cover on the outside.
https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1751153257672511728
More knock-ons made for a stop-start and defence-dominated closing half. Ireland continued to make their tackles, but with just under two minutes remaining, a clever offload from Raijieli Daveua sent Buleki breaking away from Flood and all the way to the try-line.
Ana Maria Naimasi's conversion was followed by a miscued restart kick, though, and the girls in green wound down the clock off a scrum, working the ball wide to Parsons who was able to sprint down the touchline and kick the ball to touch just past the final hooter.
https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1751152098417238240
Speaking in the aftermath, Higgins said: "It's huge (to get back in the semi-finals). It's all we've been working on, not just this season but throughout the last season when we were going for (Olympic) qualification.
"It's just huge for us to get to a semi-final again. I think it's the first time since Sydney last year. We just need to keep building on what we've just done.
"We know that every Sevens game is different. It's 14 minutes, it's completely different, so everything that's happened in the past doesn't matter. It's just about the 14 minutes on the pitch. Just making it count and enjoying being in a semi-final again."
A brilliant breakaway try from Honoka Tsutsumi halved the deficit for Japan to 14-7 by half-time, and Ireland suffered an early setback in the second half when Megan Burns was sin-binned for what was deemed a deliberate knock-on.
Murphy Crowe and Emily Lane made their tackles out wide to prevent the Japanese from scoring, and the girls in green soon got the scoreboard moving again. Smart work from Flood with a fend and a nicely-timed pass catapulted Parsons away to score from her own 22.
With the lead out to 21-7, Flood increased her influence at the breakdown to force a knock-on. Both sides were pulled back for knocks-on when on the attack, before replacement Higgins, combining swiftly with Mulhall, accelerated clear from halfway to score past the final hooter.
Ireland and Fiji faced off in the first of the afternoon's quarter-finals, with an even three wins each in the last six meetings. The Fijians enjoyed the early territory and Younis Bese popped an inviting offload off the ground for Talei Wilson to cross in the right corner.
Mulhall went quickly from a penalty, showing her side's urgency, and although Fiji were getting the decisions at the breakdown, Ireland held onto the field position thanks to Lane and Parsons's tackling which drew successive knock-ons.
The possession was clinically turned into a sixth-minute score as Flood unloaded her box of tricks to outfox the Fijian defence in midfield.
The Dubliner stepped inside one defender and shrugged off two more attempted tackles, bursting through and holding off Adi Vani Buleki to put Higgins in behind the posts with a deft offload. Mulhall converted to nudge Ireland ahead.
One final lineout before the interval allowed them to extend their lead to nine points. Burns had to scramble to retain possession on halfway, as Fiji hared up defence. But Mulhall and Flood spotted space on the left and unleashed Murphy Crowe to burn past the cover on the outside.
https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1751153257672511728
More knock-ons made for a stop-start and defence-dominated closing half. Ireland continued to make their tackles, but with just under two minutes remaining, a clever offload from Raijieli Daveua sent Buleki breaking away from Flood and all the way to the try-line.
Ana Maria Naimasi's conversion was followed by a miscued restart kick, though, and the girls in green wound down the clock off a scrum, working the ball wide to Parsons who was able to sprint down the touchline and kick the ball to touch just past the final hooter.
https://twitter.com/SVNSSeries/status/1751152098417238240
Speaking in the aftermath, Higgins said: "It's huge (to get back in the semi-finals). It's all we've been working on, not just this season but throughout the last season when we were going for (Olympic) qualification.
"It's just huge for us to get to a semi-final again. I think it's the first time since Sydney last year. We just need to keep building on what we've just done.
"We know that every Sevens game is different. It's 14 minutes, it's completely different, so everything that's happened in the past doesn't matter. It's just about the 14 minutes on the pitch. Just making it count and enjoying being in a semi-final again."