Hopes for Carlow and Kilkenny Men’s Rugby Sevens Olympic medal dashed

Hopes for an Olympics medal have been dashed for the first of our local competitors.

Carlow man John Farrell is Performance Analyst with the Irish Men’s Rugby Sevens team while players include Niall Comerford who has family ties to Callan in Kilkenny.

After victories against South Africa and Japan, they just lost out yesterday afternoon to New Zealand before falling 19 points to 16 to Fiji in the quarter finals.

The focus now is on finishing fifth in the competition – they paly the United States tomorrow (Sat).

Before that there’s the opening ceremony to enjoy along the River Seine tonight – Ireland’s flag-bearers are due to be revealed this morning.