THE WORLD RUGBY Sevens Series and Dublin appear tailor-made for each other.
It would need to be a summertime event to increase the chances of the sun showing up, but it is not difficult to imagine the fun-loving Series stopping off in the Irish capital and being welcomed with open arms by an equally fun-loving home crowd.
Sevens certainly has a way to go to become part of the sporting furniture on these shores, but there is a growing curiosity in the seven-player code.
Louise Galvin has been appointed to Rugby Players Ireland’s executive board. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
Louise Galvin, part of the Ireland Women’s Sevens squad since 2015, feels that another few big achievements in the coming months could push the piqued interest levels to a head.
The Ireland Men’s Sevens team recently qualified as a core team on the World Series and they will have an opportunity to secure Olympic qualification this summer.
The women’s side – who are already on the Series – have an even greater chance of qualifying into the 2020 Tokyo Games and Galvin senses that Irish sevens rugby is on the cusp of something big.
“I still think it’s a bit of a sleeping giant in this country,” says Galvin, who has just been appointed to the executive board of Rugby Players Ireland.
“Sevens is not a sport I knew a lot about before I started playing but once you get into it, you’re hooked. It’s so entertaining and so exciting to play… well, it’s horrific to play but there’s some sort of a drug-like adrenaline buzz with it. I really think Ireland could look towards hosting something.
“If we have two teams on the Series, I think down the line Ireland hosting a World Sevens Series event isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. It’s something that the Irish public would really enjoy because we’re a rugby-loving nation and a craic-loving nation.”
Galvin and her Ireland team-mates finished seventh at last weekend’s Japan leg of the World Series – having earned a first-ever semi-final in Sydney in February – leaving them sixth in the overall rankings with two legs left in Canada and France.
At the end of June, Ireland face into the Rugby Europe Grand Prix in France, before they get their shot at qualifying for the Olympics in Kazan, Russia from 13 to 14 July.
Ireland celebrate a win at last year’s World Cup in San Francisco. Source: Inpho/Billy Stickland
Only the winner of that qualification tournament advances to the Olympics, although the second and third-place finishers move onto a final repechage qualifier in 2020.
Encouragingly, a further two teams will qualify from that repechage into the Olympics, leaving Ireland with a strong chance of claiming an Olympic spot – whether it comes in July or next year.
“The Olympics would be huge because it’s a point of difference,” says Galvin.
“The Olympics captures the nation’s attention and if we have a team involved that people could follow, the Wicklow crowd getting behind Lucy Mulhall, the Dubs getting behind Hannah Tyrrell and the Tipp crowd getting behind Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe, it would just build from that.
“Once we get into it, fingers crossed, there’s absolutely every possibility of medalling. That’s just dream stuff.”
Reflecting the fact that Ireland are so keen to be part of the Olympics next year is the fact that the IRFU employs Galvin and 11 other players on ‘full-time’ sevens contracts.
There have been some questions around what ‘full-time’ actually means, given that Galvin – a physiotherapist – and others have continued working in other jobs on a part-time basis.