Ireland’s Men’s Rugby Sevens suffered heartbreak after losing 19-15 to reigning Olympic champions Fiji as their hopes of challenging for medals in Paris were ended.
James Topping’s side will now contest the fifth to eighth-placings when they face the USA on Saturday afternoon.
At a sold out Stade de France, Chay Mullins scored a first-half double for Ireland to give Topping’s men the half-time lead (10-7) in the quarter-final clash.
Ballynahinch’s Zac Ward finished brilliantly in the corner at the start of the second (15-7) to give Ireland ambitions of progressing through to Saturday’s semi-finals.However Fiji – the gold medallists in both Rio and Tokyo – hit back with two quickfire scores to complete a second-half comeback and book their place in the final four.
Chay Mullins of Team Ireland looks dejected following the team’s defeat during the Men’s Rugby Sevens Quarter-Final match against Fiji at the Stade de France
Chay Mullins of Team Ireland looks dejected following the team’s defeat during the Men’s Rugby Sevens Quarter-Final match against Fiji at the Stade de France
A disappointed Topping said: “It’s obviously a bitterly disappointing result for us because we came to Paris with ambitions of a podium finish. We controlled large parts of the game and put ourselves in a strong position but a couple of mistakes cost us dearly, and unfortunately against teams like Fiji you are going to be punished.
“The group are devastated because we’ve worked hard over the year building into this campaign, but we still have work to do because we want to finish strongly and on a high. We have a rest day tomorrow and we’ll dust ourselves down to come back better for the placing matches on Saturday afternoon.”
Ireland will now face USA in their placing match at 2pm UK time on Saturday, with hosts France taking on South Africa in the first semi-final, while Fiji meet take Australia in the second.
In boxing, five of the ten strong Irish boxing team will benefit from byes into the last 16 of the competition, including featherweight Michaela Walsh (57kg) and fellow featherweight Jude Gallagher (57kg).
Welterweight Aidan Walsh (71kg) meets Makan Traore of France in the preliminary round.
In archery, Team GB’s Conor Hall will be seeded in 46th place for the elimination round of the men’s individual archery after the opening ranking event.
The 28-year-old from Belfast, contesting his first Games, will face JC Valladont of France in the last-64 next Wednesday.
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