Ireland Sevens’ most capped player Harry McNulty has returned to the side ahead of the Monaco Repechage.
Mr McNulty signed for the LA Giltinis ahead of the 2021 Major League Rugby season.
The 48-time Ireland Sevens star rejoined the squad after the Irish Rugby Football Union and his club reached an agreement.
To clarify, the agreement allows McNulty to re-join the national sevens side for its Olympic qualification bid.
Ireland Sevens Head Coach Anthony Eddy noted that the IRFU approached the LA Giltinis to see if this was possible.
Mr Eddy said: “We approached him, we also approached the club there in LA and they were happy to release Harry for the Olympics which is fantastic and very nice of them to do.”
As a result, McNulty will be part of the squad for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo if the side is victorious in Monaco.
This will cap off a fantastic career in the Ireland Sevens programme for the former Munster academy man.
The Bahrain-born star’s club in America saw this as a valuable opportunity for him.
However, Anthony Eddy noted that the arrangement is not permanent and that his contract with the Los Angeles club is still intact.
“Hopefully, he gets what he deserves,” concluded Eddy.
McNulty’s move to America joined part of a long list of Ireland Sevens stars that were able to make the switch to rugby union.
For context, Leinster’s Will Connors and Hugo Keenan as well as Ulster’s Robert Baloucoune are among those who made the switch previously.
Eddy sees this as one of the successful aspects of the Irish Sevens programme.
The rugby coach thinks sevens is a great platform to develop players for their rugby union careers.
Furthermore, he thinks it is great that the country’s rugby union side is seeing the benefits of the sevens programme.
“There will be plenty more to come in the future.”
The full Irish squad and fixture list for the Monaco Repechage is available here.
