How Stacey Flood fell in love with "gruesome" Sevens as Olympic debut awaits
"We're the only team outside of the top two teams on the series to win a series this year, so that in itself is incredible," said the Dubliner.
Stacey Flood didn't know what Sevens Rugby was when her sister Kim mentioned she was playing it and that she should try it.
The 27-year-old admits it is a "gruesome" sport in terms of what it demands from athletes. Still, the Dubliner can't wait to represent Ireland in the sport at the Olympic Games next week.
Along with fellow veterans Lucy Mulhall and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, this was her third time trying to make it onto the biggest stage.
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Ireland qualified for Paris in May of last year in the World Rugby Sevens Series, holding off Fiji and Great Britain to make it at the first attempt in this cycle.
"I played GAA my whole life, I played for Clan na Gael Fontenoy, and I played soccer for Cambridge in Ringsend as well," said Flood. "I never had an interest in rugby or there was never a pathway that was accessible or I knew about.
"My sister Kim started playing when she came back from college and she was like, ‘aw, Stacey, play’. I was like, ‘no, no, I love football, I love GAA.’
"I never had an interest. It was a year later and she said, ‘I’m playing Sevens now’ and I was like, ‘what’s that?’ I didn’t even know what Sevens was and she was like, ‘it’s faster, there’s less people.’
"I started playing to keep fit because there was less contact, it was more social. It was easier to pick up than the 15s considering it was more of a running game, coming from football at the time. It led me down this path. I got on the underage Ireland team. Then I got contracted when I was 18 - and I haven’t left since."
Flood has a deep appreciation of what it takes to make it in her chosen sport. “It’s very hard on the body, particularly getting older and trying to play Sevens," she said.
“It’s seven minutes a half with two games a day over two or three days and it’s seven people on a full field, 12 in the squad who play, so it’s pretty gruesome. As a sport it’s fast, tough, you have to have all skills otherwise you’ll be exposed."
The men's team kick off their Olympic challenge at the Stade de France next Wednesday but the women have to wait until the following Sunday to start, when they take on GB at the same venue.
Both teams are training in Tours before that - where Andy Farrell's squad prepared for last year's Rugby World Cup. The men's team are regarded as a serious medal prospect after finishing second in the season-long Sevens Series.
The women haven't been as consistent, but they did win the Series tournament in Perth in January and that gives them confidence that they can beat any team on their day.
"I feel like we have really grown our squad this year," said Flood. "Getting that win was a massive thing for our programme and for us as players, and having been on the series for eight, nine years, that's something that we didn't really know would happen.
"We went to Perth and came out with the win and we're the only team outside of the top two teams on the series to win a series this year, so that in itself is incredible. But I think we can take a lot of confidence from that. We know what we have that in us."
Certainly, the squad's families had faith in their ability to make it to Paris - they all booked their tickets before qualification had even been achieved, and were even there for that final qualifier against Fiji in Toulouse.
"I'm the youngest of six kids so all the siblings are going and my mam and dad and my friends and their partners and stuff like that, so I'm really looking forward to having them all there," Flood smiled.
"They've all been to series events but they've never all been together, it's pretty special. The fact that it's in France and is just a short trip away, it's kind of like a home tournament for us. All the separate family groups said 'they're definitely going to do it this time, we need to get tickets'.
"As players, the OFI give us two tickets and then we have an option of getting another two but thankfully all of our families and friends are OK because the stadium is so big, which is pretty lucky for us."
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