There was jubilant scenes at full-time as the Ireland Women's Sevens team made history this morning in Toulouse, France as they qualified for their first Olympic Games.
Two tries from Aimee Murphy-Crowe helped Ireland to a narrow and tense 10-5 victory over Fiji in their fifth place play-off semi final.
Ireland, Fiji and Great Britain had all lost their quarter finals yesterday so as a result this game was a straight shootout for an Olympic berth.
The Irish did enough to claim victory.
Ireland captain Lucy Mulhall fought back tears after the game as she summed up what it meant to her.
“It’s been a journey and I’m just so grateful to have a team like that around us, players and family," the Tinahely native said as her father and fiancé watched on from the stands.
"It’s been an amazing year and our goal is to grow Sevens in Ireland.
“It means so much, we did it for our family and they have joined this rugby family and I’m happy we have done it together.”
While a delighted Murphy-Crowe added: "The cow jumped over the moon."
"We do it for our families. Rugby's become a family"
Pure joy and exhilaration for Ireland's captain, @LucyMulhall after qualifying for #Paris2024 🥰#HowWeSevens | @IrishRugby pic.twitter.com/S8DQDSNHhr— World Rugby 7s (@WorldRugby7s) May 14, 2023
Ireland Women's Sevens secure Olympic qualification
Murphy-Crowe opened the scoring for Ireland after nice work from Stacey Flood before Fiji responded shortly afterwards. Bizzarely the Fijians missed their conversion straight in front of the posts, before handing Ireland possesion back from the restart straight away as they failed to clear ten metres.
From the intervening scrum Murphy-Crowe scored once more.
A cagey second half followed with Ireland's defence holding firm despite facing Fijian pressure.
There were tremendous scenes at the full-time whistle as Allan Temple-Jones' side knew they had achieved a long-held dream.
SEE YOU IN PARIS 2024! 🇫🇷#Ireland7s | @TritonLake pic.twitter.com/Z5xy5FtRLG
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) May 14, 2023
Ireland now join Australia, New Zealand, USA and hosts France as the fifth team to book their place at next summer’s Games in Paris.
The Olympic Rugby Sevens tournament is set to take place at the Stade de France next July.
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