The Ireland Men's Sevens team (sponsored by TritonLake) endured a luckless run at the HSBC SVNS Cape Town tournament, as a bacterial infection in camp left them with barely enough players for a full team.
Former captain Harry McNulty, who was in Cape Town doing media work for the HSBC SVNS Series, had to answer Ireland's call and put his boots back on barely a week after announcing his retirement from the game.
McNulty had been in a commentators' meeting on Friday, but was back running out onto the pitch with his old team-mates yesterday as the illness in camp, which affected both the Men's and Women's squads, sidelined a number of players who required medical treatment.
James Topping's men could only field nine players for the pool stages, with a new format for the second of the back-to-back events - based on player welfare considerations following consultation with the teams - featuring four pools of three teams with direct qualification for the semi-finals for the group winners.
Shannon flyer Josh Costello ran in Ireland's only tries as they went down 36-7 to hosts South Africa and 29-7 to Argentina, last season's League winners. A bottom place finish in Pool C put them in the 9th-12th place play-off bracket.
Captained by Bryan Mollen, Topping's side were down to just eight players today but again showed their battling qualities, running Australia and Uruguay close despite only operating with one replacement compared to their opponents' full benches.
Mollen's seventh-minute score was not enough in a 12-7 loss to Australia, and Uruguay also pipped them by the same scoreline after a late levelling try from Mark Roche had taken the game to extra-time.
Despite a sterling effort as they were really up against it on both days, Ireland's 12th place finish in the South African heat leaves them bottom of the overall table on 3 points, behind the USA (4), Uruguay (6), Kenya (11), and Great Britain (12).
They will aim to climb up the rankings in the New Year, beginning with the third leg of this season's SVNS Series in Perth on January 24-26. Tickets are available here for the bumper three-day event in Western Australia, where the Men's side were bronze medallists almost twelve months ago.
To give some context on how much of a transitional period this is for the Ireland Men's Sevens programme, they began last week's season opener in Dubai with five SVNS Series debutants, and two other players with only one and two tournaments under their belts respectively.
Of the group that won bronze in Perth, Sean Cribbin, Jack Kelly, Terry Kennedy, McNulty, Gavin Mullin, Chay Mullins, who scored a hat-trick on his Connacht debut yesterday, Dylan O'Grady, Connor O'Sullivan, and Zac Ward were all missing from the squad list for the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
Shannon flyer Josh Costello ran in Ireland's only tries as they went down 36-7 to hosts South Africa and 29-7 to Argentina, last season's League winners. A bottom place finish in Pool C put them in the 9th-12th place play-off bracket.
Captained by Bryan Mollen, Topping's side were down to just eight players today but again showed their battling qualities, running Australia and Uruguay close despite only operating with one replacement compared to their opponents' full benches.
Mollen's seventh-minute score was not enough in a 12-7 loss to Australia, and Uruguay also pipped them by the same scoreline after a late levelling try from Mark Roche had taken the game to extra-time.
Despite a sterling effort as they were really up against it on both days, Ireland's 12th place finish in the South African heat leaves them bottom of the overall table on 3 points, behind the USA (4), Uruguay (6), Kenya (11), and Great Britain (12).
They will aim to climb up the rankings in the New Year, beginning with the third leg of this season's SVNS Series in Perth on January 24-26. Tickets are available here for the bumper three-day event in Western Australia, where the Men's side were bronze medallists almost twelve months ago.
To give some context on how much of a transitional period this is for the Ireland Men's Sevens programme, they began last week's season opener in Dubai with five SVNS Series debutants, and two other players with only one and two tournaments under their belts respectively.
Of the group that won bronze in Perth, Sean Cribbin, Jack Kelly, Terry Kennedy, McNulty, Gavin Mullin, Chay Mullins, who scored a hat-trick on his Connacht debut yesterday, Dylan O'Grady, Connor O'Sullivan, and Zac Ward were all missing from the squad list for the start of the 2024/25 campaign.