After the women's AIL club final was rescheduled last week, there was some question of whether 7s stars like Beibhinn Parsons would be able to play, as the final no longer conflicts directly with their international commitments, but the IRFU has since confirmed they won't be in the game.
The Energia AIL final between Blackrock College and Railway Union was set to be played in Donnybrook last Friday evening, but the pitch was determined to be unplayable in the freezing temperatures. It was rescheduled to Saturday, Dec. 17th—significantly no longer conflicting with the international 7s team's games at the World Sevens Series in Cape Town.
Both Blackrock and Railway have star players on the 7s team, including Beibhinn Parsons (Blackrock) and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway). In fact, an 8-out-of-13 majority of the sevens squad that was in Cape Town play for one of the two teams in the final.
However the IRFU has confirmed no player from the Cape Town tournament will compete in the final. After successive weekends in Dubai and Cape Town they will have a few weeks off.
The original scheduling of the final on the same weekend as an international 7s tournament had received criticism, including from Railway Union director of rugby John Cronin:
"I don't want to take away from the players that are in the final, they're bloody good players. It should be a good game, but it seems to me to be somewhat self-defeating and unnecessary. If the players and the clubs were involved in the decision making, this wouldn't be what they would have come up with."
"It's unfair on those we have training and it's also unfair on our Sevens players who miss out on the domestic final."
After the rescheduling Cronin indicated that the returning players still would not participate in the final. Blackrock head coach Ben Martin said the same, noting "They've had a pretty intense few weeks and the long flights added to that won't help their preparations for a final."
