Ireland will ‘feel impact' of not having Sevens programme, says Harry McNulty
Ireland's captain at the
Paris Olympics
has accused the
IRFU
of being 'disrespectful to the Olympic programme' after their decision to discontinue the men's Sevens programme.
Harry McNulty, who represented Ireland at a pair of Olympic Games and also won a bronze medal at the 2022 Sevens World Cup, has said that Ireland will miss out on global reach 'bigger than any World Cup' and will 'feel the impact of not having a Sevens programme'.
On Wednesday, the
IRFU released a statement
saying that it would no longer support a men's Sevens team. The format as a whole is in a period of flux, with both the Ireland men's and women's teams relegated from the World Series as World Rugby enacts a number of format changes in a bid to revitalise the sport.
While the men's programme will be no more, the IRFU confirmed that the women's Sevens squad will continue to operate. In its statement, the governing body said that the men's programme 'does not contribute as a development pathway for the 15s game, with current academy structures in place within the provinces offering greater development opportunities'.
READ MORE
McNulty took issue with the IRFU's position, pointing to a number of 15s players who have played Sevens. The likes of Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien and Robert Baloucoune are frequently cited as examples. In recent years, Zac Ward, Chay Mullins and Andrew Smith have all seen provincial game time after playing on the Sevens circuit.
'From the inception in 2015 there have been players in our programme who have gone back to 15s every single year. They may not have become big names or all played for Ireland, but they all went back as better players.
'Zac [Ward] was a backrower now turned winger because of his Olympic prowess. He had double the amount of metres gained in the Olympics than any other player in the world. If he wasn't going to make it as a backrower, where was he going to make it? This has allowed him set up a whole new career for himself.
'Baloucoune, one of his first touches, first cap against the USA he scored from 40 metres out beating three players. We saw him do that week in, week out when he was with us.'
Zac Ward of Emerging Ireland. Photograph: Darren Stewart/ Steve Haag Sports/Inpho
The IRFU also pointed to its difficult financial position having lost €18 million in the 2023/24 season. During that time, the IRFU spent €4.2 million on Sevens.
McNulty said those figures were 'outliers', pointing to how the lack of November internationals as a result of the 2023 World Cup hurt the IRFU's income. He also took issue with the classification of the women's Sevens programme as a valuable development pathway, while the men's is not.
'Why is one a financial burden when the other is seen as a development pathway? They're both the same sports, but one is being let go, the other isn't.
'It's [men's programme] everything that the women's team is doing as well, but somehow it's deemed a financial burden.'
McNulty believes other countries risk going down the same path for Ireland. Pointing out the success of smaller rugby nations such as Spain and Brazil, he expresses concern that any similar decisions by other nations risk the growth of the sport. 'There's been so much change, so much up in the air,' he said.
'Other nations are definitely struggling, Ireland probably won't be the only nation which will cease to exist. The finances and loss of money gets in the way of what Sevens can do for the sport of rugby as a whole.
'I think there needs to be a shift in mindset. Rather than it being something losing money, this is a spend on marketing for your nation and for the growth of the game. When you do that, you're probably making more money in the long run through a marketing spend.'
While Ireland's former captain believes the ending of the programme was dealt with 'poorly', he expresses his disappointment for those currently involved. 'We had 10 lads move on from the programme [last year] and it's hard to keep up at the level Sevens is played at.
'I feel really bad for everybody involved. Irish rugby as a whole will feel the impact of not having a Sevens programme. It is definitely improving rugby and growing the game an immense amount.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
Infantino's Club World Cup: An unwanted, bloated, bizarre tournament that is somehow too big to fail
ROLL UP, ROLL up, and welcome to the Gianni Infantational. Fifa's newly-expanded Club World Cup kicks off in the United States this week, where the stars include Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi and, chiefly, the Fifa president. No man has been so closely associated with a sporting competition since Michael Murphy was both frequent winner and title sponsor of the Donegal senior football championship. The competition's gaudy trophy – which resembles a golden plate but is unlocked by a key to morph into what looks like a 3D rendering of the atom – bears Infantino's name on it in two different locations, while among the rare collectible sticker for the tournament's official Panini album is, yes, Gianni Infantino. (Infantino, in fairness, has previously shown his adhesive qualities in any room also containing an authoritarian world leader.) You may be moved to ask whether this tournament exists for anything beyond the fulfilment of Infantino's monstrous ego and, truly, this column is struggling to give you an alternate reason beyond football's propulsive greed. If there is enough money out there for something to exist, then it simply must exist. Never mind the fact that football supporters were hardly clamouring for it, and the elite, Europe-based players who will compete to win it are already exhausted and threatening strike action over the bloating of their calendar. Fifa will say its a means of spreading the wealth to clubs outside of Europe, which is a noble idea indeed. The problem is that if you want to spread that wealth, this is a terrible way to do it. Advertisement A handful of European clubs will earn enough to further pull up the drawbridge on their national and continental rivals, while the smaller teams will be given prize money many multiples of that which they earn on a normal basis, which risks ruining the competitive balance of leagues across the world. As a competition, it does not pass the casual viewer's smell test. For one, this is a competition to crown the best club in the world that's missing all of the champions of England, Spain, and Italy. There's a limit of two clubs per country, and Chelsea qualified by virtue of winning the Champions League in 2021, which was done by a completely different set of players playing under a different coach who was employed by a different owner. The qualifying format has betrayed the extent to which European football has been dominated by its top quartet of leagues, as the highest-ranked side falling outside these leagues and thus competing in America are Red Bull Salzburg, who this year ranked as the third-best side in Austria. Elsewhere, Inter Miami have qualified seemingly because they have Messi, who is famous. The reigning MLS champions are LA Galaxy, but they are not competing this month. No, Inter Miami have a place instead, as they won the 'supporters shield', a trinket given to the side that tops the regular-season table prior to the play-offs. This is like giving the title to the Premier League team that scored the most goals. Gianni rocked up to this presentation, and triumphantly announced, Noel's Christmas Presents-style, that Inter Miami had earned an extra special bonus surprise: they would be competing at the forthcoming Club World Cup. Messi's presence hasn't exactly moved the dial: ticket prices for the opening game in which he will feature have been slashed. (The Athletic report that students are being offered five tickets for a total of $20, with tickets initially reaching $349 in January.) Gianni has continued to boost his glitzy Infantational without doing any traditional press conferences, or facing questions from any journalist or organisation who might ask an awkward question. He has appeared on iShowSpeed's YouTube channel, which wasn't exactly a Gen Z Frost/Nixon.. Instead he unveiled the official match ball and claimed Cristiano Ronaldo would be transferred from Al-Nassr to a competing side, in order to play at the tournament. This didn't happen in the end – though PIF-owned Al Hilal are in talks with PIF-owned Al-Ittihad to get N'Golo Kante on loan for the tournament – but went to accentuate the sheer lack of seriousness that now afflicts the very top of Fifa. Whereas the Champions League expanded to meet broadcasters' demand, there was little broadcaster demand for the Club World Cup: the BBC didn't show an interest in it while ITV bid a competitive £0 to show it. But riding to the rescue came DAZN, who bought the rights for a reported billion pounds, and have agreed to show it for free. If you're wondering where the loss-making DAZN found so much money to bid on an unproven tournament featuring heavyweight games like Monterrey vs Urawa Red Diamonds and Wydad AC vs Al Ain, then do not worry. A few weeks later, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund took a 10% stake in DAZN worth a reported. . . billion dollars. Phew, what a coincidence! PIF meanwhile came onboard as event sponsors six days ago, a day after Qatar Airways signed up. If you think it is unusual for a major, wealthy sponsor to become involved so close to the event and miss out on the lucrative months in advance of the tournament, then you'd be right. The whole event underscores the reality that football is no longer enraptured with capitalism in any traditional sense. The sport is at the moment all supply and no demand: Fifa and its broadcasters and sponsors had the wealth to make this happen, in spite of the fact that hardly anyone was demanding it. One nation it does suit is, of course, Saudi Arabia. Elite players are chiefly dissuaded from joining the Saudi Pro League because it is not the top end of the sport, as they would be waving goodbye to the Champions League. But if the Club World Cup becomes sufficiently big, and if it can happen more often than once every four years – two-year intervals are already being mooted – then the Saudis can make the Champions League come to them. And Europe's elite clubs, already carrying massive debts and feeling hemmed in by domestic financial fair play rules, will hungrily follow the money dangled in front of them. So despite the fact that the players are wrecked and unenthused, and that the qualifying format makes no sense, the ticket sales are slow and many major broadcasters see no value in it, the Club World Cup is too big to fail. Professional football is eating itself and so this bizarre, unwanted tournament will go down in history as another staging post at which we could see the world's most popular sport retreat further into the clutches of an absurdly wealthy few. And it has been made possible by sport's great handmaiden to oligarchy and private capital, Gianni Infantino. What a legacy.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Bulls will look to use raw power to take down Leinster in URC final
The South African podcaster Harry Jones recently posted a video to social media detailing the country's rugby philosophy. A fan, whom Jones labels the Potchefstroom Poet, lays it out for those who have not been initiated in the ways of the 'Bok: 'We f**k them up in front, easy. We make our first-time tackles. And then, we spread the ball. Easy. No nuance in how the Bulls can sack Croke Park this week: back to brutal basics. ~ the Potchefstroom Poet — Harry Jones (@haribaldijones) 'Rugby is not hard.' Libations may have influenced this particular bard when dumbing down the rugby DNA of an entire nation. But he isn't wrong. READ MORE Twice in the last four years, Jake White and his Bulls have faced Leinster in URC knockout games. Twice they have ended Leo Cullen and friends' seasons. The secret sauce? See our lairy lyricist. The Bulls laid siege to Leinster's forward pack in a way which has become stereotypical of South African sides. The Irish province couldn't cope. Should the Bulls revert to type? If they do, are Leinster better equipped to deal with the onslaught? Against the Sharks last week, the Bulls did not just rely on set-piece, forward dominance and an astute kicking game Let's start by succeeding where our muse failed; putting some statistical meat on the bones of the Bulls' success. They fall into the South African blueprint of looking to play without the ball, kicking aplenty and being ruthlessly efficient when they do earn opportunities to strike. In last year's semi-final at Loftus Versfeld, the Bulls made 112 carries to Leinster's 131. They kicked 42 times in open play, Leinster 37. The South African side's kick-to-pass ratio was 1:3. Leinster's was 1:5. The kicking game worked, the Bulls earning 59 per cent of the game's territory. Just 34 per cent of their possession came in their own half. Despite the deficiency in attacking volume, the Bulls made almost the same number of metres post-contact as Leinster (231 vs 236) while working more line breaks (eight vs six). The identity of those doing the attacking damage is telling. For most sides, the 'best' runners, those who make the most metres, are found in the back three. They often have acres of space to run back kicks against faraway defensive lines. Not the Bulls. In that 2024 semi-final, their top metre-maker was number eight Cameron Hanekom. Their outhalf, Johan Goosen, was number two. Third was another backrow, Elrigh Louw. The most effective back three player was wing Devon Williams, the team's fourth best metre-maker. He made less than half the yardage of Hanekom (39 metres vs 83). By contrast, Leinster's top four carriers that day were James Lowe, Jimmy O'Brien, Jamie Osborne and Caelan Doris. The Bulls do spread the ball, as our poet suggested, but only after the big boys do the main damage up front. They have the lowest figure in the URC for number of phases which travel beyond the second receiver (6.1 per cent). The one area not yet referenced is the set-piece. Unsurprisingly, the Bulls love a scrum. Videos of their frontrow battle with the Sharks last week have gone viral. They have historically targeted Leinster's dead ball platform. With good reason. This year, 68.3 per cent of the province's tries have come from set-piece, joint highest in the URC. Next week final will be a good one. But I worry about is the lack of reward for strong scrums in the comp. Bulls will definitely be strong against Leinster next week in the scrum & if they don't get rewarded, could affect the outcome of the game — Scoop 🐻 ☕️ (@Rugby_Scoop) In 2024, the Bulls held Leinster to a 67 per cent scrum success rate. In 2022, the lineout was the problem, Leinster ending with a success rate of 78 per cent. In that 2022 upset at the RDS, unsurprisingly the Bulls outkicked Leinster 31-25. Less predictable was Leinster still earning 70 per cent of territory while only holding 48 per cent of possession. Then, Leinster's profligacy was more of an issue than where the game was played. They coughed up possession 18 times (compared to 13 in 2024). True to form, though, the Bulls' best runner at the RDS was their number eight, Elrigh Louw. Leinster's was Jimmy O'Brien. Here's where things get interesting. Against the Sharks last week, the Bulls did not just rely on set-piece, forward dominance and an astute kicking game. They still kicked plenty (once for every 2.9 passes, more often than their victory over Leinster last year) and let the opposition dominate the ball. Yet they also threw 13 offloads. Four of their top five metre-makers were backs, with wing Sebastian de Klerk leading the way. They also scored an ambitious try off a de Klerk cross-kick. What has just happened 😱 Vodacom — BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) The smart money is for these flourishes to remain precisely that, rather than the dominant gameplan. Can Leinster counteract? They back themselves against anyone when it comes to the strength of the forward pack. In that semi-final defeat last year, Leinster made more dominant tackles (and by default had a better dominant tackle percentage) than a South African side which values strong defence above all else. More recently, Leinster's dominant tackle (9.6 per game) and carry (37.4 per cent) rate leave them mid-table in the global professional rankings this season. The attacking figure is better than the Bulls, the defensive figure worse. Should the Bulls revert to type? If they do, are Leinster better equipped to deal with the onslaught? These stats do include all Leinster games this year, including earlier URC run-outs with weaker XVs. It remains to be seen, though, how strong Leinster will be on Saturday: Caelan Doris is already out, while Josh van der Flier, Tadhg Furlong, Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan all remain doubts. Set-piece wise, Leinster are once again middle of the global pack for this season's lineout (83.5 per cent) and scrum (90.2) success rates. The Bulls beat them at both. It remains to be seen if Leinster's improved total of scrum penalties this year - 54, eight behind the Bulls on 62 - represents enough of an uptick. Historical figures give us a fairly solid idea of how the Bulls think they can beat Leinster. More recent numbers present one or two kernels of comfort for Leinster. Other figures could be used to draw a more negative conclusion. As always with damned stats - which have a propensity to lie - we'll have to wait until the game itself to see which argument is proved right.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Former Olympic swimmer Gabrielle Rose turning back the tide of time
The official record book still attests that Michelle Smith won the 200m individual medley at the Atlanta Olympics on the night of July 24th, 1996. She snatched her third gold of those games by edging out Canada's Marianne Limpert over the last 50m and, given Smith's subsequent four-year ban, the ensuing controversy over those placings, inevitably, understandably, lingers still. Representing her mother's native Brazil, Gabrielle Rose wasn't involved in the final, her business at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center concluded hours earlier when the 18-year-old finished sixth, three seconds behind Limpert, in heat four of the competition. Gabrielle Rose competes in the Women's 200m Breaststroke heats during the Toyota National Championships at Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis on June 4th. Photograph:A respectable showing for an also-swam. That time earned the teen 22nd place overall and augured well for her future. Fresh out of St Mary's Episcopal High School in Memphis, Tennessee, Rose embarked on a swimming scholarship to Stanford University, combining a BA in American Studies with working towards improving her showing at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. By the time they came around she had switched allegiance to the USA. Qualifying for the final of the 200m individual medley on that occasion, a disappointing seventh marked the end of her medal aspirations forever. She was 22. At the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis last Friday night, Rose finished seventh in the 100m breaststroke final at the US National Championships. Five months shy of her 48th birthday. A genuine triumph of sorts. According to LinkedIn, Limpert is programme promotions co-ordinator at New Brunswick Power Corporation these days, and Smith is, of course, a barrister in Dublin. Exactly where superannuated swimmers are expected to be. Yet, the high-schooler they once left in their wake has improbably found her way back to the highest level of the sport. At an age when she is often older than the parents of the women she's competing against. READ MORE 'Age is a big way that we limit ourselves,' said Rose. 'There's something to be said about continuing to set big goals, exploring and pushing yourself. We're capable of more than we think sometimes.' [ Almost 28 years on, Michelle Smith de Bruin's Olympic splash continues to make waves Opens in new window ] That attitude has informed one of the most curious and compelling comebacks in recent sports history. Rose walked away from swimming before the 2004 Olympics, her hopes of one more qualification having been dashed by an untimely battle with mononucleosis. She got on with the rest of her life, marrying, becoming a mother, divorcing, and working as an advocate for drowning prevention. When her wealthy philanthropist father died of cancer in 2017, she dedicated herself to a campaign to restore and renovate the swimming pool at the University of Memphis into a top-class facility available to everybody in the town. A noble cause. Gabrielle Rose at the USA National Swimming Championships in College Park, Maryland, on August 9th, 2003. Photograph:'It has inspired me on all levels,' she said of the impact on working on what is now known as the Mike Rose Aquatics Centre. 'It motivated me to get into coaching, to pursue my own swimming, to really do even more. Swimming is not just a sport, it is a life-saving skill, and I was motivated to provide that opportunity to more people in our city.' Aside from coaching kids in El Segundo, California, Rose kept fit by competing at the masters' level. In one of those outings two years ago she set a personal best for the 100m breaststroke that brought her within touching distance of the Olympic qualifiers' time. Where did that performance come from? Well, as a child of 12, she'd been a phenomenon in that event but lost her mojo as she grew into her teens and morphed into a medley competitor instead. For no explicable reason, she accidentally rediscovered the perfect stroke in her 40s. Between that, honing her diving technique, being allowed to use the dolphin kick at the blocks, and surrounding herself with an extensive support team including a nutritionist and sports psychologist, she soon found herself posting times comparable to swimmers who weren't even born when she was competing against Smith, Limpert et al in Atlanta. Realistic enough to know she was never going to be quite fast enough to punch her ticket to Paris, she still reached the semi-finals of the Olympic qualifiers last year. She swam in memory of her father and to inspire her watching daughter. The crowd loved her re-emergence; the media, too, adored the feelgood narrative. Dipping her toe back in competitive waters required making herself available for regular drug testing. At which point she discovered swimmers now communicate their whereabouts to testers via an app rather than sending a fax like she used to do in ye olden days. Another illustration of how long she'd been away. Gabrielle Rose finishes second in the women's 200m individual medley finals at the Olympic Swim Trials in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 12th, 2000. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP via Getty Images That she didn't win last weekend scarcely matters either. Of course. It's more important that she was there. In the final of the national championships, something she first aspired to in her early teens. On the starting blocks with some women young enough to be her kids. A middle-aged woman doing her bit to turn back the clock. Brazenly trying to defy Father Time. On behalf of beleaguered, jaded and weary middle-aged triers everywhere. 'The water has often been an escape and a sanctuary through some rough chapters of my life,' wrote Rose on her Instagram. 'Now I can see it's more than the water itself. It's the process. Something about continuing to go for more and ask what else might be possible washes away a lot that doesn't feel like me − and I get to see more of who I really am.' She is something.
