Ireland 7s set up a Sunday meeting with Great Britain in the semi-final of the HSBC SVNS tournament in Perth after a neat 14-12 defeat of Fiji in the quarter-final.
It’s a good start to the new year for Ireland, who have lost their last five Cup quarter-finals, having last made it to the top 4 a year ago at the Sydney Sevens.
Friday saw Ireland put in two impressive performances against higher-ranked sides, ending a six-match losing run to the USA with a 19-14 win and securing a losing bonus point in a 21-14 defeat to New Zealand thanks to a try from Aoibheann Reilly.
Beibhinn Parsons scored a hat-trick in the 26-7 win over Japan, a game where Meath LGFA star Vikki Wall made her 7s debut, while Eve Higgins and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe both touched down in the quarter-final win against Fiji.
Lucy Mulhall will captain the team against GB in tomorrow’s showdown, set for 12:22 p.m. local time/4:22 a.m. Irish time (available for live streaming on RugbyPass TV).
Hosts Australia and the USA meet in the other semi-final.
These semi-finals are going to be tense 🥵#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSPER pic.twitter.com/fnCqNQOJZy
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) January 27, 2024
Of Ireland’s progression to the semi-finals, Eve Higgins said, “It’s huge. It’s all we’ve been working on, not just this season but throughout the last season when we were going for [Olympic] qualification.”
“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.”