This is a sad end to the Ireland sevens' exciting, emotional journey

The 42

16-05-2025

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE not to feel sad for the group of Irishmen who spent such a big chunk of their 20s striving to put Ireland on the rugby sevens map. They succeeded.
The Ireland men's sevens team played at the Olympics in 2021 and 2024. They finished second on the World SVNS Series last year and third at the 2022 World Cup. Terry Kennedy was World Rugby sevens player of the year in 2022 and easily could have been again last year.
Having restarted in Division C of the Rugby Europe Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina back in 2015, Ireland rose steadily through the ranks to become contenders. It was an exciting, emotional journey featuring lots of highs and some big lows.
But now, a decade later, the Ireland men's sevens team is no more.
The IRFU has shut the programme down and as things stand, there is no plan in place to even try to plot a route to the 2028 Olympics. This really does appear to be the end.
Kennedy is among the ex-Ireland sevens players who have shared their anger at the IRFU's decision to discontinue the men's sevens programme. He branded the union's actions as 'utterly disgraceful' and 'absolutely shocking,' words echoed by several of his former Ireland team-mates and their supporters.
Kennedy finished up with Ireland after the Olympics to pursue his career outside rugby. That was constantly a dilemma for these Irish players. At the start, they weren't even paid. When contracts eventually came into play, they weren't lucrative.
Even in the last couple of years, the highest salary a men's sevens player could earn was €30,000 per season. Only a select few were at that level. Others were earning between €18,000 and €22,000. Some came into squads when they weren't even on that much.
So no one was in sevens for the money. Nearly all of Ireland's players over this period have worked or studied outside of rugby in order to get by. Some of them have relied on support from their families. And those family members deserve a mention. The men's sevens community has been a tight-knit one, parents and loved ones travelling around the world together and keeping each other up to date when their lads were on the road. They're feeling anger and sadness right now too.
The Ireland men's sevens team had some great success. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
A degree of the frustration stems from the timing. The 2024/25 World SVNS series finished two weekends ago. It's not like the remaining contracted Irish players were given a full year to prepare themselves for life after sevens.
The Ireland squad were due to meet IRFU performance director David Humphreys on Monday. There was an awareness that bad news was coming at that meeting. But for a statement to then get released suddenly on Wednesday evening hurt for people who wanted to be told face to face that they would no longer have jobs as pro players.
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Still, this decision is not a major surprise to those involved. There has been a sense of doom around the Irish men's programme for some time now. World Rugby's extensive financial struggles in sevens mean unions like the IRFU have been questioning its sustainability. Indeed, it has been reported that World Rugby has lost up to €25 million since centralising the sevens series in 2023.
When Ireland moved on from last year's Olympics without a major chunk of their most experienced, proven players, the writing was on the wall. This 2024/25 campaign was a miserable season for an inexperienced Irish side as they finished 11th out of 12 teams.
By the time the final leg in LA rolled around, World Rugby had belatedly clarified its plans for the series next season. Ireland were already in the relegation play-off places and duly got chopped as the series was reduced from 12 to eight teams for next season.
That all would have meant Ireland having to go through the Rugby Europe Championship to qualify for the third tier of the restructured SVNS series. And that confirmation proved to be the final straw for the IRFU. They pulled the plug.
So the union can argue that they were only able to make a final decision after World Rugby confirmed its plans, although the evidence of the 2024/25 campaign is that the IRFU was already firmly on the path towards wrapping up the men's programme.
Otherwise, there would have been a genuine post-Olympics plan in place. The 2024 Games were always likely to be the finishing point for many of the core players. But the union opted against truly refreshing the men's programme.
Of course, this decade of the Ireland men's sevens team's rebirth correlates exactly with David Nucifora's tenure as the IRFU's performance director.
Terry Kennedy and Jordan Conroy. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The Australian is a huge advocate of sevens as a development tool for 15s, but also as a standalone game. He hoped the sevens team could unearth and improve players for the Irish provinces and the Ireland 15s team. He also believed sevens could be a popular game in its own right here.
It's clear now that few in the IRFU agree. Nucifora moved on last year after the Olympics and he must be exasperated to see 10 years of work on the men's programme going down the drain. The Irish union has other priorities now.
Sevens was undoubtedly important in giving current Ulster players Zac Ward, Rob Baloucoune, and Cormac Izuchukwu a pathway into professional 15s rugby. Baloucoune and Izuchukwu have Ireland 15s caps. There have been others who got an opportunity in the Ireland sevens set-up at just the right time.
Ireland 15s internationals such as Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien, and Shane Daly had substantial spells with the sevens team and have spoken highly about how that time improved their core skills.
There are further 15s players such as Nick Timoney who are held up as products of the sevens programme, yet didn't spend long with the squad in reality.
And on the flip side of those positive examples, there have been some players directed into sevens from provincial academies who didn't feel it furthered their game and may even have denied them chances in the 15s game at crucial points in their development.
Whether the Ireland men's sevens programme developed players for professional 15s at a steady enough rate over the last 10 years is open to debate. Unfortunately for all involved in the programme, the IRFU's assessment was that it didn't.
The union evidently doesn't believe that sevens has captured the imagination of the wider sporting public in Ireland. The series is difficult to follow due to the vastly different time zones involved and the lack of TV coverage these days. World Rugby has struggled to sell the rights in recent years because broadcasters haven't been drawing in big audiences.
So the IRFU no longer feel that the investment is worth it. To men like Kennedy, Harry McNulty, Mark Roche, Billy Dardis, Jordan Conroy, and Jack Kelly – Ireland's most capped sevens players – this decision must hurt greatly. They were the heartbeat of Irish men's sevens. They had amazing experiences on the circuit and formed a remarkable brotherhood. None of the sevens stalwarts had a chance to go back into the 15s game after missing out on senior contracts first time around, but they did get the chance to represent Ireland on a global stage. Sadly, no one will follow in their footsteps now.
IRFU performance director David Humphreys. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The IRFU has been spending millions of euros on sevens. €2.97 million in 2021/22 became €3.84 million in 2022/23 and then €4.24 million in the 2023/24 campaign, which was the Olympics year.
Those numbers cover both the men's and women's programme, with the latter staying alive for now because the union feels it genuinely is a development pathway for women's 15s internationals.
So the IRFU will save itself money through this decision, even if there is funding from World Rugby for teams who participate in the SVNS series, understood to be to the tune of around €350,000. Further funding came from Sport Ireland due to the Olympics element of sevens, while the Ireland sides have been sponsored by TritonLake since 2021.
The IRFU has cited the need to safeguard its 'long-term financial sustainability.' The union has reported three deficits in the last four financial years. And it has been well flagged that professional rugby is on shaky financial ground around the world.
The axing of the men's sevens programme is part of an increasing trend of the IRFU tightening its belt.
That kind of cold, financially-driven decision doesn't take into account the human element of this. And that's another reason Wednesday evening's announcement hurt and caused anger.
CEO Kevin Potts did thank 'everyone who has contributed to the success of the Men's Sevens programme,' but the 500-word statement lacked warmth.
There were no celebrations of the amazing moments Ireland have had in the past decade, no direct mention of the families who have given so much, the staff who have worked so hard behind the scenes, and no real sense of gratitude towards players who have toiled and sacrificed plenty in order to proudly represent Ireland.
This is the end, but they deserve to be saluted.