The Olympics opening ceremony is on Friday throughout the city of Paris but the men’s and women’s 7s Olympic rugby tournament begins this afternoon with the men’s competition that will see 12 of the best men’s side face off and then tomorrow the 12 best women’s teams do likewise.
Ireland will have a side in either draw, the men open there campaign this evening when they face South Africa at 4.30pm and they will also play Japan at 8pm tonight. The men conclude their group by taking on New Zealand tomorrow afternoon at 3.30pm. Ireland are in Pool A with South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.
Amazing that the opening ceremony will only take place on Friday and a number of Olympians will have ended their respective competitions but such is life I suppose and it is down to scheduling. The men’s and women’s teams have been very competitive on the World stage in the years since the 7s programme was re-established within the rugby community in Ireland.
Hugo Keenan is one star from the 15s game in the Olympics this year but of course the real star quality, the man that will have people tuning in will be French star Antoine Dupont who has been in around the 7s side since the new season started in earnest after the RWC back in September and he made it known he wanted to go and play in a home Olympics for France.
This season has seen him win in club colours another Champions Cup title and a Top 14 trophy and he will hope to add Olympic Gold to this year’s haul. He made his 7s debut in Canada and was a key cog for them in that leg of the World series, showing off his true array of skills in the shortened form of the game.
The game is only 14 minutes long and has all the rules of the 15s game although the scrum is only 3v3. It will hopefully draw a big audience and as Ireland captain Harry Mc Nulty said it’s an honour to kick off the 2024 Olympics.
Ireland carry 166 athletes to this Olympics and we have a number of medal hopes and with a positive start today against South Africa, they will be off and running in a good manner…. If things come together this group could deliver our best medal haul. Olympic medals are a rare commodity on this Island so whatever the sport get behind this group of 166 athletes. The could deliver very special moments over the next 19 days…