Ireland equalled their best-ever performance in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, with an eighth place finish at the Las Vegas Sevens.
Anthony Eddy's side finished in third place in the pool stages, on Friday, before the quarter-finals on Saturday. The team recorded an impressive win over the hosts in their opening pool game, and only lost to Fiji in their opening three games.
In the quarter-finals, Ireland played the United States once more, but came out on the wrong side of a 20-12 defeat with Stacey Flood and Megan Williams scoring for Ireland.
Ireland failed to win a match on Saturday in the Nevada heat. In the fifth place semi-final play-off, the team lost 20-5 to Russia. Williams scored her second try of the day in the defeat.
Russia run out as 20-5 winners over Ireland in the 5th place Semi-Final. Ireland now face France in the 7/8th place play-off. #IreW7s #USA7s pic.twitter.com/ZyE8yY4AXB
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) March 4, 2017
Ireland needed to win their final game, against France to finish in seventh place, but came up just short against the team they also lost to in Sydney last month. In the 15-5 defeat, Leinster's Katie Fitzhenry scored Ireland's only try.
The performance in Las Vegas means that Ireland lie in ninth place overall after three rounds. The top nine teams at the end of the Series will qualify for next year's events as core teams.
Ireland return to action next month in Japan. The Kitakyushu Sevens takes place on the 22nd and 23rd of April.
Here are how the standings look after three rounds of the women's #HSBC7s! Next stop, Kitakyushu in Japan! pic.twitter.com/FzDGAgy00N
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) March 5, 2017
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
