Ireland suffered a second successive defeat at the Olympics with a 19-17 defeat to the United States of America.
The USA moved from side to side to spread the Irish defensive line thin and enjoyed the lion’s share of the early possession.
Perry Baker got the first score of the game under the posts after dodging Ireland captain Billy Dardis’ tackle just two minutes in with Madison Hughes converting.
Ireland suffered a disastrous restart after their pod could not recover the ball and it fell for Hughes who made no mistake and dotted down for a second.
The number 10 could not make add the extra two this time around.
The States’ Danny Barrett proved to be a huge ball-carrying threat and constantly pushed the Irish line backwards.
A rare Irish possession was squandered after Hugo Lennox failed to release outside the American 22.
Lennox made up for his error with a lovely catch after an offload from Foster Horan to get Ireland’s first points.
Dardis could not get his conversion between the posts, leaving his side 12-5 down at the break.
An inventive Irish lineout led to a fascinating passage of play that finished with Terry Kennedy inviting Sevens ‘original’ Harry McNulty to get Ireland’s second try of the game.
Billy Dardis missed his second chance to put an extra two on the board and Ireland failed to go level as a result.
A huge carry from forward Brett Thompson opened the Irish defence up once again and Stephen Tomasin added the nation’s third and also scored the conversion.
Jack Kelly’s injury may have been a factor in Thompson’s huge carry.
Ireland found themselves in the American 22 but a poor lineout spelt the end of the game for Anthony Eddy’s men.
Foster Horan got the try he deserved after some strong carries but it was too little, too late.
The side now has a mountain to climb if they are to progress to the quarter-finals, with Kenya the final obstacle for the national sevens side on Tuesday, July 27th at 3 am.
