Ireland to host Rio qualifier
Ireland will have home advantage in the last gasp tournament to qualify for the Olympics with Dublin named as the location for the Women's Sevens Olympic Repechage Tournament, which will see 16 teams compete for the final remaining place in Rio.
Published by Alison Donnelly, December 10th, 2015
2 minute read
The tournament will take place on June 25th - 26th 2016 at the UCD Bowl.Ireland will compete alongside Kazahstan, China, Hong Kong, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Samoa, Cook Islands, Uruguay and Argentina for the final coveted place at the 2016 Rio Olympics.The announcement comes after the successful World Rugby Sevens Series Qualifying Tournament held in UCD in August and the announcement that World Rugby awarded the Irish Rugby Football Union and Ulster Rugby the right to host the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 which will be held in Dublin and Belfast in August 2017.Speaking about the announcement, David Nucifora Irish Rugby High Performance Directorsaid "We are delighted with today's announcement that Ireland is going to host the World Rugby Women's Sevens Olympic Repechage Tournament with the support of Sport Ireland.Having successfully hosted the recent World Rugby Women's Sevens Qualifying Tournament in August, it a fantastic opportunity to bring world class Sevens back to Ireland and UCD.This gives us another great opportunity to showcase Women's sevens in Ireland and with a place in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio up for grabs, it is an extremely important tournament for all the teams involved.”