Irish Sevens team into semi-finals at European Games with Olympics spot up for grabs
Ireland's Zac Ward in action against Nathan Bontems of Belgium during his team's quarter-final win. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/InphoThe Irish Sevens team has earned a semi-final place at the European Games in Poland after winning against Germany in their pool match and beating Belgium in the quarterfinal on Monday evening.
Only the winners of the event, which are also Olympic qualifiers, are assured of a place in the Paris Games next summer. The Irish women’s team have already qualified, but never before have Ireland qualified both a men’s and women’s rugby team for the same Olympic Games. In both matches a slow start from Ireland forced them into a chasing game and in both they had to respond to going a try down. But each time, they responded well, hitting Germany with three tries and winning the match 19-7 to book the quarterfinal.
That game then fell into a similar pattern when Belgium scored and converted after two minutes for a 7-0 lead. But two minutes later Dylan O’Grady was in for a try with Mark Roche converting to draw level.
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