Three changes have been made to the Ireland men’s sevens squad for the second and final leg of the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series in Edmonton, Canada.
The three changes to the squad for this weekend are injury-enforced, with Gavin Mullin, Ed Kelly and Mark Roche, unfortunately, picking up injuries in Vancouver.
All three have been ruled out this week and have returned to Dublin while Olympians Billy Dardis and Jordan Conroy, and Aaron O’Sullivan return to action for the national side.
A new-look Ireland squad impressed last weekend in Vancouver as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series returned after 18 months, and the side – led by Bryan Mollen – will be hoping to build further on those performances at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
A fourth-place finish in Vancouver was Ireland’s best placing as a World Series core team, and the exposure of nine debutants to international action across the weekend was a real positive at the start of a new Olympic cycle.
Commenting ahead of the Edmonton tournament, IRFU Director of Sevens Rugby Anthony Eddy says this weekend will provide the squad with another exciting opportunity to build experience and cohesion building towards the 2022 season.
“It was great to see to team perform so well in Vancouver and they have taken a lot of learnings from that tournament that should put them in a better position this weekend,” Eddy said.
“What is really exciting is to see some of the young men that have no experience of this level of competition perform so well and they will continue to develop and become very important players for the team during the 2021/2022 World Series.”
Ireland will open their campaign against Germany on Saturday, September 25 (9:44 am local time/4:44 pm Irish time), before further Pool C clashes against Jamaica (12:55 pm local time/7:55 pm Irish time) and Great Britain (4:28 pm local time/11:28 pm Irish time) later in the day.
Play-off matches will be played on Sunday, September 26 – all games will be available to watch on the World Rugby Sevens Series social media channels.
Ireland Squad – Edmonton 7s
Niall Comerford (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers)
Chris Cosgrave (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Seán Cribbin (Suttonians)
Billy Dardis (Terenure College)
Shane Jennings (Buccaneers RFC/Connacht)
Sean Kearns (Irish Sevens)
Steven Kilgallen (UCD RFC)
Bryan Mollen (Blackrock College)(Captain)
Ben Moxham (Ballymena/Ulster)
Aaron O’Sullivan (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Conor Phillips (Young Munster/Munster)
Liam Turner (Dublin University/Leinster)
