The IRFU have been selected to host the World Rugby Women's Sevens Olympic Repechage Tournament, which will see 16 teams compete for the final remaining place in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The tournament will take place on June 25th-26th 2016 at the UCD Bowl. Ireland will compete alongside Kazahstan, China, Hong Kong, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Samoa, Cook Islands, Uruguay and Argentina for the final coveted place at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The announcement is yet another step forward for women's sport in Ireland as it comes after the successful World Rugby Sevens Series Qualifying Tournament held in UCD in August and the announcement that World Rugby awarded the IRFU and Ulster Rugby the right to host the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 which will be held in Dublin and Belfast in August 2017.
Speaking about the announcement, the Irish Rugby High Performance Director David Nucifora said "We are delighted with today's announcement that Ireland is going to host the World Rugby Women's Sevens Olympic Repechage Tournament with the support of Sport Ireland. Having successfully hosted the recent World Rugby Women's Sevens Qualifying Tournament in August, it a fantastic opportunity to bring world class Sevens back to Ireland and UCD."
Ireland's Men's team are to travel to Monaco on August 9th-11th 2016 with a view of booking their place at the OPlympics. The tournament also contains Uruguay, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Russia, Germany, Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Samoa, Zimbabwe, Morocco and Tunisia with one place at stake.
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