Layden & Carr in Ireland 7s squad

26 May 2017

Layden & Carr in Ireland 7s squad
Buccaneers' Shane Layden and former Connacht winger Fionn Carr have both been included in the Ireland Men's 7s side that travel to the Netherlands this weekend to compete at the Amsterdam 7s.

The Irish side made the semi-finals of the tournament last season, and will hoping for an improved finish this time around.

The side is contains a combination of both Provincial Academy and Ulster Bank League players.

Ian Fitzpatrick and Jimmy O'Brien, who are part of the Leinster Academy are named, as are Munster's Shane Daly, Steve McMahon and Greg O'Shea, along with Nick Timoney from Ulster.

Fitzpatrick's Lansdowne teammates John O'Donnell and Mark Roche complete the Dublin 4 club's representation, while Bryan Mollen will represent his club Dublin University.

Buccaneers' Layden and Naas's Carr are the other Ulster Bank League players in the squad, while Steve Toal-Lennon, who is based in London, has been working with the IQ Sevens programme.

Amsterdam, which will feature other international sides such as China, Italy and Poland, will be the final warm-up event for the Irish side before the travel to Moscow for the first stage of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix, on the 3rd and 4th of June.

Moscow will be the first of four tournaments that make up the Grand Prix, the others being Lodz in Poland, St. Etienne in France and Exeter in England.

The Grand Prix Series offers Ireland the opportunity to qualify for the World Rugby World Sevens Series Repechage next season in Hong Kong, as well as the 2018 Sevens World Cup in San Francisco next summer.

On confirming the squad, Director of 7s Rugby Anthony Eddy said: "We've had the players in for a number of training sessions over the last few weeks and they are coming together well as a squad.

“They got the season off to a positive, winning the Dublin 7s so we'll look to keep building that momentum this weekend.

“The invitational sides that compete at these sevens tournaments are always quite strong, so it will be a good test for us before heading to Moscow next week.”

Ireland Men's 7s Squad – Amsterdam 7s (27th-28th May)

Fionn Carr (Naas RFC)

Shane Daly (Cork Con/Munster)

Ian Fitzpatrick (Lansdowne/Leinster)

Shane Layden (Buccaneers)

Steve McMahon (Shannon RFC/Munster)

Bryan Mollen (Dublin University FC)

Jimmy O'Brien (UCD RFC/Leinster)

John O'Donnell (Lansdowne FC)

Greg O'Shea (Garryowen FC/Munster)

Mark Roche (Lansdowne FC)

Steve Toal-Lennon (IQ Sevens)

Nick Timoney (Queen's University FC/Ulster)