Latest news with #IrelandSevens
Irish Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Dancing with the Stars contestant announces rugby retirement after 10 years
Rugby star Jordan Conroy has said he didn't think it would be "so difficult" retiring from the sport. The Rugby Sevens star announced he will hang up his boots after 10 years playing with Ireland. In an emotional statement on Instagram, the 31-year-old admitted to it having been a difficult decision to make. The Tullamore native said: "I didn't think it would be this difficult writing this, saying goodbye to something that's been apart of your life the last 10 years. "Trying to put everything into words is quite impossible or not shedding a tear while writing this." Conroy first started playing rugby when he was 18 and played 15s with Tullamore and Buccaneers. He made his Ireland Sevens debut in 2016 and was the highest try scorer at the 2020 World Series as the Boys in Green qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He has played 171 World Series games for his country, scoring 123 tries in that time. Conroy, who also took part in RTE's Dancing with the Stars, added: "First of all I'd like to thank my I've known from the beginning of when I started this, to those who I met along the way. "Thank you for allowing me to share this journey with you, the good times and the bad times." SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 29: Jordan Conroy of Ireland scores a try during the 2023 Sydney Sevens match between Ireland and Great Britain at Allianz Stadium on January 29, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by) He said "we were more than just a team". "We were more than just a team, we were a bunch of lads who believed in each other when others laughed at us. "To you I give thanks and I am honoured to have shared this journey with you. "To the special people who I've met around the world who stuck with me since the very beginning and saw something in me to @padinphx@therealdenimdan@trevorleander_trev@meenu___apr@clorabella@kobay_okeeffe@lalainejoyce thank you for your kindness your blessings. "It makes me sad that I might not meet some of you ever again, but that's okay because we can cherish the memories we had. "Finally to myself for believing in me for braving the toughest storms that this sport has thrown at me but also taught me so many things. "I wouldn't be the Jordan I am today if it wasn't for this sport. "I now officially announce my retirement from professional Rugby 7s it's been on heck of a ride folks. "Peace and Love," he added. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Kuwait Times
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Kuwait Times
Chennai clinch inaugural Sevens title
Organizers hope rugby finds space in cricket-loving India as first league concludes MUMBAI, India: Ireland Sevens international Terry Kennedy helped Chennai Bulls clinch India's inaugural Rugby Premier League (RPL) title on Sunday as the sport took its first fledgling steps in a country obsessed by cricket. Kennedy scored two of Chennai's seven tries as they concluded the six-team rugby sevens franchise league with a 41-0 thrashing of Delhi Redz in Mumbai. India's Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra was among the many stars who graced the finale although the crowds were understandably no match for the hordes that turned up to watch Virat Kohli's Bengaluru win the T20 Indian Premier League earlier this month. However, the RPL's coverage on satellite television has given organizers hope that rugby could emerge as a major sport in India. 'No matter how big a sport may be, there is always space if you work hard enough if you create a product that's good enough,' Rugby India president Rahul Bose told AFP. 'In that respect we are very happy and very secure in the knowledge that there is space for this game and it doesn't have to come by eating away at anybody else's space.' Just as the IPL focused on the shortest form of cricket, so the RPL has chosen to go for the shortest form of rugby, with the seven-a-side format in this tournament lasting 16 minutes — four quarters of four minutes each — and dispensing with the hard grunt of the 15-man game to showcase slick handling and blistering pace. Kennedy is not the only top Sevens player to have been drafted in to the RPL. His teammate Joseva Talacolo, who also scored a try in Sunday's final, won silver with Fiji at last year's Olympics in Paris while Scott Curry, whose Bengaluru Bravehearts finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match to Hyderabad Heroes, played 321 times for New Zealand's All Blacks Sevens team. The American Perry Baker, now 39 and a two-time World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, came out of retirement to play for Kalinga Black Tigers. According to Bose, this first iteration of the tournament has gone down well with the public. 'What we have heard is that the game is easy to follow, very fast, very exciting and has got tremendous amount of likeability,' said Bose who is also a successful Bollywood actor. 'Along with that, the athletic prowess of these men has come in for a lot of attention. We are happy with the connect we have made.' 'Bigger and better' The RPL is seen as a way for India to bolster their dreams of hosting the Olympics in 2036 — and given the continental qualifying system for the Olympics, India even has an eye on fielding a men's or women's team prior to that. But it is more than an ideal. The RPL, which blends Indian players with international stars, is run by GMR Sports which, as owner of the IPL team Delhi Capitals, knows a thing or two about franchise competitions in India. 'The first season has gone very well for us,' Satyam Trivedi, chief executive officer of GMR, told AFP. 'The sponsors are happy with what they see on the ground and on TV. 'However this is just the beginning for us. We are looking at the first season as a showcase event and take a lot of learnings from here. In every season this league will get bigger and better.' — AFP
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Monaghan and Parsons in Ireland RWC training squad
Ireland's Sam Monaghan and Beibhinn Parsons have both been included in a 37-player training squad for the Women's Rugby World Cup in England. Scott Bemand's side begin their tournament against Japan on 24 August with New Zealand and Spain also in their pool. Co-captain Monaghan has not played international rugby since the 2024 Six Nations with the 31-year-old lock missing this season's championship and last year's WXV1 campaign through a knee injury sustained playing for her club Gloucester-Hartpury. Olympian Parsons has also been absent through injury after she suffered two leg breaks in the space of four months, the second coming when representing Ireland Sevens in December. With 26 Tests to her name, only Enya Breen has more caps than Parsons among the backs in Bemand's panel. Forwards Sarah Delaney, Eimear Corri and Shannon Ikahihifo are all included after missing out on the Six Nations where Ireland finished third with two wins and three defeats. Alma Atagamen and Ivana Kiripati are the only two uncapped players in the panel. Influential forwards Erin King and Dorothy Wall have already been ruled out of the tournament through injuries sustained in the Six Nations. Ireland's final squad for the competition will be reduced to 32 players with the side playing warm-up games against Scotland in Cork on 2 August and Canada in Belfast seven days later. The side did not qualify for the 2021 World Cup after finishing eighth on home soil four years prior. Forwards: Alma Atagamen, Aoife Wafer, Brittany Hogan, Christy Haney, Cliodhna Moloney, Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird, Edel McMahon, Fiona Tuite, Grace Moore, Ivana Kiripati, Jane Clohessy, Linda Djougang, Neve Jones, Niamh O'Dowd, Ruth Campbell, Sadhbh McGrath, Sam Monaghan, Sarah Delaney, Shannon Ikahihifo, Siobhan McCarthy. Backs: Amee-Leigh Costigan, Anna McGann, Aoibheann Reilly, Aoife Corey, Aoife Dalton, Beibhinn Parsons, Dannah O'Brien, Emily Lane, Enya Breen, Eve Higgins, Katie Corrigan, Molly Scuffil-McCabe, Nicole Fowley, Stacey Flood, Vicky Elmes Kinlan.
Irish Daily Mirror
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Men's Sevens axed: Connacht are next, Women's XV's in firing line too
So the Ireland Men's Sevens programme had to go, the IRFU saving circa €2.5m and not brooking any debate in the process - load, aim, fire, Women's international side and Connacht should be very, very relieved they dodged this bullet. It was going to be one of those three."Absolutely shocking from the IRFU," posted former Ireland Sevens player of the Year Terry Kennedy who represented Ireland at 40 different tournaments 2016-24, on Instagram. A view the legendary Brian O'Driscoll endorsed on X/twitter: "Incredibly disappointing to see the @IrishRugby mens 7's being discontinued. Have loved watching them on the @SVNSSeries over the past decade or so - more than holding their own against the best of the world's 7's teams. Understandably I'm sure there's a lot of anger & frustration within their camp."Kennedy was for going a bit further, blaming the cost of importing foreign players to play provincial rugby and overspending at committee level on food/travel to games. Continued Paris 2024 Olympian: "The way they've handled the whole situation is nothing short of a disgrace. Humphreys and Potts not even having the integrity to announce this properly, instead getting a media person to put up a post, and only because their hand was forced as there was an article about to be published separately."So disappointed for the current group of players as well as younger players coming through that they won't be afforded the same opportunities and experiences that myself and the lads have, because of the shortsightedness of a couple of old guys running the game here."The financial/cost-cutting excuse is complete smoke and mirrors, masquerading the fact that every RWC year Unions run at a major loss due to the lack of November international match revenue. "Between funding from World Rugby for being on the World Series, Sport Ireland funding from Olympic success and sponsorship funding, no other programme outside the Men's 15s brings in anywhere near the revenue."No mention of the millions paid to bring foreign players over on short-term contracts and the budget to pay for committee members travelling to 6N games and tours with lunches and dinners - far more than the whole 7s budget."The disrespect that the IRFU have shown to Sport Ireland and the Irish Olympic Committee after all their years of funding, utterly disgraceful." Strong stuff dinners and trips aside as unquantifiable, we do know there are 12 Non-Irish Eligible (NIE) players being paid a salary across the four comprise RG Snyman, Rabah Slimani, Jordie Barrett (a six-month 'short term' contract) at Leinster, Jean Kleyn, Thakir Abrahams, Alex Nankivell at Munster, Sean Reffell, Werner Kok, Aidan Morgan at Ulster, Santiago Cordero, Josh Ioane and John Porch (released mid-Feb to play Top 14 in France) at Connacht had a further five foreign players Piers O'Connor, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Bryan Ralston, Sean Jensen and Shayne Bolton who, by birth, are Irish eligible - indeed Jensen and Bolton played for Ireland 'A' last four provinces are intensely secretive about specific players wages with Leinster's three believed to have little change out of €1m, Munster's three costing circa €700k, Ulster's €700k and Connacht's three a few euros past € according to the IRFU, their men and women's Sevens programme cost €4.2m in 2023/24. Sport Ireland, who are responsible for aiding Olympic sports, can be relied upon for around €500/600k per annum. The Mens sponsorship deals with Tritonlake and Blackrock PM brings in a further € David Humphreys, current IRFU Performance Director, and the man tasked with making cutbacks following IRFU CEO Kevin Potts announcing the Union had made an €18.4m loss in 2023/ figure is real money but, as Kennedy rightly points out, it was an unusual year as a Rugby World Cup year. The IRFU don't make any money from the World Rugby-owned competition. World Rugby redistributes the profits to their 113 member of the World Cup though, the IRFU missed out on the Aviva-staged November Series games. International games are the IRFU main revenue driver with the Six Nations also coming with generous prize-money, a €6m bonus for a Grand Slam for instance. Tacitly, the loss of the three 2023 November series matches cost the IRFU circa €15m and the buck stopped with Humphreys, ordered to kill off something that was weren't many choices and, indeed, Humphreys first took a bite out of the provinces announcing last month he was raising their contribution to Central Contacts by from 30 to 40 percent from next season. This will cost Leinster €330k/Munster €500k. Of the target that could have been chosen, it is the international womens XVs programme that is losing the most money - and this is a Rugby World Cup Year for them. It was decided to pass on is a preferred target but resistance out west has stymied their being scrapped before, granting them a longer lease of life. Make no mistake, this will be back on the table in the near future, the westerners have no friends at the IRFU's big left Sevens sticking out like a sore thumb, the Mens section particularly as it is not a reliable feeder to the provinces or international XVs game - the one that makes the money. The Women's Sevens section, by contrast, backbones the XVs this completely, by the way, may come with potential Trumpian bluff benefits... If the IRFU ceases funding the Olympics sport, how much would Sport Ireland be prepared to pay to keep a discipline where Ireland are medal contenders on their roster? Maybe more than the current money they are chipping in and, after all, the IRFU could help them out, send them a few players when they are thinking of fielding a team in a competition. Hugo Keenan loves playing Sevens for fallout, and as placed squarely in the frame by Kennedy, about the financing of foreign imports' contracts continues and with Leinster attracting a lot of Cullen was, as it turned out, the visible face of Irish rugby yesterday and his Friday pre-match press conference for a game with Glasgow at the Aviva that had little or no relevance to the play-offs was always going to be a shooting gallery. And from which it is clear Leinster are frustrated with the narrative that it is all their fault. That somehow Snyman, Slimani and Barrett have been painted as modern day pirates, eye-patches, peg-legs and hooks, all cutlassas and swagbags at the ready."Every team (men's province) is self-funded here in Ireland, that is it important to understand," said an exasperated Cullen. "Sport is a business at a professional level and we want to get bums on seats. 'In terms of the foreign players that are in our 23 matchday squad this week, we want to make it exciting for fans."Because when you have moved from a few hundred people back in the day in Donnybrook to the RDS which is now being redeveloped and then, this year, to the Aviva, you need to get bums on seats. "We are running a business here. It's a self-funding business. There's 70 odd staff on the ground as well, getting rugby balls into young kids' hands. That's been funded by the professional team. "It's not like every €100 generated by the professional game goes back into the professional team. It might come back in time but it's what we call a virtuous circle. "It's not like we're looking for money from outside. We are self-funding."It's not like if Sevens have a surplus and we're looking for their money. That's not how it works. So that's what we're in control of." Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.
BBC News
20-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Costigan to captain Ireland against France in opener
Amee-Leigh Costigan will captain Ireland in their Women's Six Nations opener against France at the Kingspan previously captained Ireland Sevens but will lead Ireland for the first time in a Test match in Belfast with regular captain Edel McMahon on the row Ruth Campbell and openside flanker Erin King will make their Six Nations debuts for Scott Bemand's side in a game that will be live on BBC Northern Ireland as well as iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and Ireland team shows four changes to the side that beat USA in the WXV Series in their last game in October as Campbell, Anna McGann, Eve Higgins and Dannah O'Brien are handed Flood and McGann join Costigan in the back three with McGann coming in for the retired Eimear Considin at right Higgins and Aoife Dalton are selected as the midfield pairing whilst Emily Lane makes her first championship appearance since 2021 at scrum-half as O'Brien comes in for Nicole Fowley at O'Dowd, Neve Jones, who has been selected as vice-captain, and Linda Djougang make up the front row, with Campbell preferred to Fiona Tuite at lock alongside Dorothy Hogan, King and Aoife Wafer complete Ireland's back has opted for a 6:2 split on the bench and can call upon the likes of Cliodhna Moloney, Siobhan McCarthy, Christy Haney, Grace Moore, Tuite and McMahon as forward reinforcements, with Aoibheann Reilly and Enya Breen the backline were beaten 38-17 by France in last year's Six Nations as they finished third in the team: Flood, McGann, Dalton, Higgins, Costigan (capt); O'Brien, Lane; O'Dowd, Jones, Djougang, Campbell, Wall, Hogan, King, Moloney, McCarthy, Haney, Moore, Tuite, McMahon, Reilly, Breen.
