Ireland win Elche 7s

A strong Irish squad began its warm-up for the2022 World Serieswith a comfortable win in this year’s Elche Sevens, going one better than the last tournament in 2019 when they lost to France in the final.

Lead by Lucy Mulhall, Ireland topped the pool on Day 1 with wins against Belgium (26-5), Poland )33-7), a "Costa Blanca 7s" team (31-0) and a largely developmental Spanish team (49-5).

This set up a semi-final with Spain on Sunday, which proved to be Ireland’s closest game of the weekend, Spain leading 10-5 at the break, after tries from Zahia Pérez and Cecilia Huarte cancelled out a second minute score from Maeve Liston, before unanswered tries from Grace Moore and Brittany Hogan – both converted by Kate Farrel - won the game for the Irish in the second half.

Poland ended runners up in the pool thanks to a 24-14 win against Belgium, the two teams meeting again in the second semi-final which Poland won more comfortably, 26-0.

Belgium ended third with a 29-17 win against Spain, before Ireland met Poland in the final.

Moore opened the scoring for Ireland in the first minute, converted by Farrel. Tries from Emily Lane three minutes later and Hogan a minute later – both converted – put Ireland into a 21-0 lead at the break before a second try from Lane wrapped up the win in the second half.

Results

Pool: Spain 0-19 Poland; Belgium 5-26 Ireland; Belgium 22-0 Costa Blanca; Ireland 33-7 Poland; Costa Blanca 0-31 Ireland; Spain 5-19 Belgium; Poland 41-5 Costa Blanca; Ireland 49-5 Spain; Costa Blanca 5-20 Spain; Poland 24-14 Belgium

Semi-Final: Ireland 19-10 Spain; Poland 26-0 Belgium

3rd Place: Spain 17-29 Belgium

Final: Ireland 26-0 Poland

Squads

Spain:1 Cristina López; 2 Marta Cantabrana; 3 Claudia Pérez; 4 Iciar Pozo; 5 Julia Castro; 6 Cecilia Huarte; 7 Paula Requena; 8 Silvia Morales; 9 Selene Jiménez; 10 Ingrid Algar; 11 Rocio Rodera; 12 Alba Capell; 13 Abril Camacho; 14 Blanca Ruiz; 15 Zahia Pérez

Poland:1 Tamara Czumer; 2 Julia Druzgala; 3 Karolina Jaszczyszyn; 4 Anna Klichowska; 5 Malgorzata Koldej; 6 Hanna Maliszewska; 7 Marta Morus; 8 Marta Nowosz; 9 Natalia Pamięta; 10 Sylwia Witkowska; 11 Nela Wójcik; 12 Patrycja Zawadzka

Belgium:1 Margaux Lalli; 2 Margaux Stévins; 3 Emilie Musch; 4 Héloise Stévins; 5 Ciska De; 6 Ella Amory; 7 Manon Nairac; 8 Margaux Pierson; 9 Hanne Swiers; 10 Pauline Gernaey; 11 Noemie Van; 12 Cristina Pecoraro

Ireland:1 Claire Boles; 2 Megan Burns; 3 Katie Heffernan; 4 Eve Higgins; 5 Brittany Hogan; 6 Erin King; 7 Emily Lane; 8 Maeve Liston; 9 Kate Farrel; 10 Grace Moore; 11 Lucy Mulhall; 12 Beibhinn Parsons; 13 Aoibheann Reilly; 14 Katie Whelan; 15 Amee-Leigh Murphy

Costa Blanca:1 Lininia Kaufana; 2 Ellie Miles; 3 Bethan Davies; 4 Isobel Mayhew; 5 Louise Burgess; 6 Isabel Espárrago; 7 Macarena Fernández; 8 Cristina Iglesias; 9 Camila Valero; 10 Alba Martínez; 11 Raquel García; 12 Orsana Panasenko; 13 Klaudia Respondek;