Bright future ahead for Lucy
World Series spot sealed
IT began with an email. IRFU Development Officer Stan McDowell saw Lucy Mulhall playing Gaelic football one day and thought she had the skills to become an elite 7s player.
The only problem, as Mulhall has admitted in previous interviews, is that she didn’t know the sport even existed and had to use YouTube to help. That was 2014, and a year on she was made captain of Ireland at the age of 21. Last Sunday she and her teammates came within two matches of qualifying for the Rio Olympics.
Mulhall first made her impression as a sportswoman on the GAA fields of Wicklow with her club Tinahely and her county. She was a member of the victorious 2011 Junior All Ireland winning Wicklow side as a 17-year-old and is one of the best footballers in Wicklow.
These days however she is centrally contracted with the IRFU and she trains five days a week with her teammates. Mulhall has deferred her Radiation Therapy course in Trinity for the past couple of years to concentrate on 7s rugby.
The Irish 7s team is made up of players coming many different sporting backgrounds. Alison Miller and Niamh Briggs have come in from the 6 Nations winning 15-a-side rugby side while others were leading basketball and hockey players. It is quite an achievement for the Crossbridge native to be chosen as captain from a group of very successful sportswomen.
7s rugby has brought Mulhall and her team around the world for tournaments, including Dubai, Sao Paolo, Atlanta, and Canada. Their first few tournaments were baptisms of fire but every year and every tournament brings improvement.
Last weekend UCD hosted the Women’s 7s Olympic Repechage Tournament for the one remaining spot at the Rio Olympics. Russia and Spain were the favourites.
Ireland topped their pool by hammering Trinidad and Tobago 51-0, overcoming Portugal 24-12, and winning their final pool game against China 12-0 on Saturday to set up a quarter final again Tunisia on Sunday morning. They were far too strong for the Tunisians, beating them 38-0, and met Russia on Sunday afternoon.
Russia had won their group by scoring 164 points while not conceding one so it was always a tough ask for Mulhall and co. The Russians won 19-10 but Ireland did come third with a convincing victory over Kazakhstan for Bronze and earned qualification for next year’s World Series.
Mulhall is the place kicker for the team and that brings with it added pressure but she is usually deadly accurate while also creating try scoring opportunities for her teammates.
She has come a long way from YouTubing 7s rugby two years ago and will only be coming into her prime in four years’ time for another crack at Olympic qualification for Tokyo 2020. In the meantime Mulhall and her teammates will continue with their progression as a 7s team, that is of course unless another email comes her way.