What time and TV channel is the Ireland v Fiji quarter-final on in the Rugby Sevens at Paris Olympics?
Harry McNulty's side are considered potential medallists but face a huge test this evening
Ireland rugby Sevens team will play their quarter-final match against Fiji in Stade de France at 9pm tonight. The Harry McNulty captained side lost their third Pool A game, played this afternoon, 12-14 to New Zealand.
They had opened their campaign with a 10-5 win over South Africa and followed up by beating Japan 40-5 in the second game. Against New Zealand, Ireland had taken a 12-0 lead thanks to tries from Zac Ward and Jordan Conway but were hauled back in the latter stages.
Says Conroy of the difficulty of playing the reigning Olympic champions: “When I started I looked up to those teams because they were the greats. But I suppose when you are in the World Series for so many years you kind of lose that a little bit because you want to be on par with them.
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"So I personally think our team is on a par with the lads. We were second this season so it kind of shows me we are well able to beat these and we shouldn’t be afraid of them.
"But they do have times of individual brilliance which you can’t take away from them and any team can as well. It’s just the fact we mainly focus on ourselves now. We don’t think about those teams in that frame anymore ‘Oh my God, it’s Fiji’.
"We are aware what they can do but if we just stick to what we do, we can beat these with our strategy. That’s the way we’ve been the last year or two, we respect them but we don’t put them on a pedestal anymore."
QUARTER-FINALS starting 8pm, Ireland v Fiji at 9pm - all four quarter-finals have extra-time and penalty kicks if necessary
New Zealand v South Africa - 8pm
France v Argentina - 8.30pm
Fiji v Ireland - 9pm
Australia v USA - 9.30pm
The Men’s tournament concludes on Saturday with the ranking and medal matches.
WHERE TO WATCH
RTÉ - Ireland v Fiji 'live' with details of channel and times to be released shortly.
Hugh Cahill on commentary. Panel discussion to feature Sevens internationals Hannah Tyrrell and Darren Cave with Darragh Moloney in-studio host.
ALSO - BBC iPlayer and Red Button, and Eurosport 2.
IRELAND SQUAD
Niall Comerford (UCD RFC)
Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers RFC)
Hugo Keenan (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Jack Kelly (Dublin University FC)
Terry Kennedy (St. Mary’s College RFC)
Hugo Lennox (Skerries RFC)
Harry McNulty (UCD RFC) (capt)
Gavin Mullin (UCD RFC)
Chay Mullins (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht/IQ Rugby)
Mark Roche (Lansdowne FC)
Andrew Smith (Clontarf FC/Connacht)
IRELAND TRY SCORERS (after two games)
3 - Kennedy
2 - Mullin, Ward
1 - Conroy, Comerford, McNulty, Lennox
WHAT THEY SAID
Harry McNulty (Ireland captain): “It is a really encouraging opening day for us, and it’s job done in terms of two wins from two.
“It’s all about a huge pool game against New Zealand tomorrow afternoon as we want to progress through as winners and give ourselves the best possible draw in the knockout stages.
“We have had incredible support in Paris today and it has been electric playing in front of this crowd, so we’re excited to come back tomorrow to raise our game and hopefully progress through the competition.”
James Topping (Ireland Men's Sevens Coach): “We’ve got those first two pool games out of the way, and we’ve got a game against New Zealand that clears the head. We’ve beaten them already in the World Series this year but the rest of the times they’ve put one over on us, so it’s going to be another good test for us.
“The performance against South Africa was really good. We sort of dominated possession and played the way we want to play. It was a tough first half (against Japan), it was only two scores in it at half-time, probably the second was a bit fortunate. I think the guys handled it well, handled that pressure, changed the way we played slightly and then the second half we created a bit of space and we have guys who can finish it off.”
NB NB NB DON'T FORGET
Ireland Women's Sevens team open their campaign against Great Britain on Sunday afternoon at 2.30pm Irish time).
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