Conroy and Ireland one win away from Olympics
Jordan Conroy and the Ireland men's rugby sevens team are just one win away from securing Olympic qualification for the second successive time.
Ireland beat Portugal 24-0 to advance to this evening’s European Games final (Tuesday) against Great Britain in Poland (8.35pm Irish time), where the winner will secure Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.
The silver and bronze medallists in this tournament will get to target qualification through the World Repechage. For now, however, Ireland will be focused on the more direct route.
After a relatively slow start against Portugal, Tokyo Olympian Billy Dardis put the first score on the board, with a try which he duly converted. Dardis scored his second try in the closing minutes of the half bringing the score at the break to 14-0 In Ireland’s favour.
In the second half, tries from Zac Ward and Tullamore native Conroy, and a strong defence from the Irish team saw the boys in green move one step closer to securing their Olympic qualification with an eventual 24-0 win.
Ireland had advanced to the semi-finals after a 26-12 quarter-final victory over Belgium in Krakow.
After initially going behind, James Topping’s side stepped it up a gear in the second half to comfortably progress to the last four. Belgium got the opening scores of the game before patient build-up from the Irish saw Dylan O’Grady score a try under the posts to level the game. Terry Kennedy’s try which was converted by Mark Roche gave Ireland a seven-point lead at the interval.
In the group stages, Jordan Conroy, Zac Ward and Bryan Mollen all scored a brace of tries each as Ireland ran in 10 scores in a 66-0 win over host nation Poland. Then Topping's charges made no mistake against Italy, running out 38-7 winners.
Ireland then comfortably advanced to the quarter-finals as pool toppers after a 19-7 victory over Germany.
Despite a slow start that saw the Irish trailing at half-time 7-5, they came into the game strongly in the second half. Germany had opened the scoring, converting their try to move into a seven-point lead, before Jack Kelly replied for Ireland. A Conroy try saw Ireland move into a five-point lead, before Andrew Smith put the game beyond doubt as he got over the end line.
Speaking after the wins over Poland and Italy, Conroy of Buccaneers RFC said: “We had a good first game against Poland but we knew that Italy would be another level up so we just literally said the same thing as we did in the Poland game; play our own game, stick to our rules and we executed it very well so we’re happy.”
And speaking after the quarter-final win over Belgium, Conroy said: “It’s always a little bit nerve wracking, every team is going to bring their A game, so we have to bring our best.”
Having not been able to travel to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a large Irish contingent is supporting the team in Poland. The prospect of those supporters getting to see the side play at the Olympics in Paris next year is serving as motivation for the team.
“We want to do it for them as much as ourselves,” Conroy said.
And looking ahead to the final, Billy Dardis said: "There’s no motivation needed for a big Olympic qualifier so it’ll just be about getting our jobs right, getting our roles right and going out there to execute it.”