The Ireland Men’s Sevens team have been drawn into Pool C with the USA, South Africa and Kenya for the Men’s Olympic Sevens tournament.
The competition will take place from July 26th to July 28th at Tokyo Stadium in the Japanese capital.
Ireland are familiar with all three of their opponents, having played them during the cancelled 2019-20 HSBC World Rugby Sevens series.
Anthony Eddy’s side has also faced the USA more recently in May at the Great Britain International 7s tournament in May.
The United States will be one of the top sides to beat at the tournament after impressive performances in the truncated World Series season.
Also present in the group are Rio 2016 bronze medalists South Africa.
Ireland drew 19-19 with the side in their last encounter during the Los Angeles round of the World Series on February 29th, 2020.
Ireland 7s stars Jordan Conroy and Billy Dardis got on the scoresheet that day.
The side last faced Kenya in December 2019 during the second round of the World Series in Cape Town.
The two teams played out a 24-24 draw on the day.
“We are familiar with these teams from the World Series and the reality is there are no easy games at this level,” Eddy, the IRFU Director of Sevens and Women’s Rugby, said. “We will prepare well for the Pool matches and look forward to each game. I think the Monaco tournament experience will put us in a good position for Tokyo.”
Ireland captain Billy Dardis described today’s announcement as an exciting marker for the side.
“It is going to be a very challenging Pool but we’ve come up against those three teams regularly before and will take confidence from previous meetings,” said Dardis. “We’re really looking forward to getting over to Tokyo and stepping onto the Olympic stage.”
You can view the announcement here.
