Conroy scores all five tries in Sevens success

JORDAN CONROY became the first player since 2010 to score five tries in a HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series game as the winger’s remarkable try-scoring feat fired Ireland Men’s Sevens to a memorable first win as a core nation.

Conroy produced a devastating display of finishing to grab all five of Ireland’s tries during a dramatic 31-29 victory over Scotland in the final Pool B game of the Dubai Sevens on Friday evening.

“It felt amazing out there. To get a first win on the World Series and hopefully we can build on that into tomorrow. We needed that to kind of get ourselves going,” said the Tullamore man.

“It was a bit of a dogfight but we were happy with our performance. It was absolutely amazing scoring each try. Scoring five, I didn’t think I had it in me but it felt great. I think I left my legs out there but it was amazing.”

With less than a minute left on the clock, Anthony Eddy‘s side found themselves behind after a thrilling shoot-out in front of a packed crowd at The Sevens Stadium but Conroy conjured one last act.

Ireland showed patience and precision with the clock in the red to eke their way downfield from their own try-line and once they had

Jordan Conroy: Five-star display

moved within striking distance, it was left to Conroy to crash over, with Mark Roche landing the winning points with the conversion from in front of the points.

Not only was it Ireland’s first win on the World Series but Eddy’s side will now hope to kick on from here, starting with today’s 11th/12th place play-off against European rivals Spain.

After slipping to a 45-21 defeat to Australia earlier in the day, the lastgasp win wasn’t enough to secure a passage through to the quarterfinals.

Ireland will hope a maiden World Series victory is a springboard for today’s play-off game and then into next week’s leg in Cape Town.