It’s no ordinary year for Paris-bound Amy Larn

AMY Larn may have initially viewed 2024 as a year in which she would simply continue her development on the international rugby sevens stage, but it is set to become a lot more significant than that.

Indeed, the 20-year-old Athy women, last Sunday, travelled out to France with Allan Temple-Jones’ senior panel, for which she was selected as one of two reserves for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Tours has been the first stop for the squad over there, before they travel on to Paris next Monday ahead of their Summer Games opening fixture against Great Britain on Sunday, July 28.

For Larn, who only made her senior international sevens debut at the Rugby Europe Championship in Hamburg this time last year, it has been a whirlwind opening half to 2024.

Valuable experience at the HSBC Sevens Series stop in Singapore was followed with impressive displays at Rugby Europe Championship tournaments in Croatia and Germany, all of which was capped with selection as a travelling reserve for the forthcoming Olympic Games.

“I was just taking this year as it came, just finding my feet” Larn told The Kildare Nationalist. “I wasn’t really expecting much from the year.

“This season was really the first time I was playing senior rugby. I found it tough at times, I struggled a bit.

“The skill-set is at a higher level, but I was delighted to go to Singapore and get some experience there.

“I played in Croatia and just put my best foot forward, took the opportunities that I got.

“And later when it came to the Olympic squad announcement, I was told that they wanted to bring me as a travelling reserve.

“I was just delighted. I still can’t believe it, but it’s getting real now. I’m just delighted to be able to finish off the year like this” said the Kildare women, who can operate at scrum half or on the wing for Ireland.

A fifth-place finish in last year’s World Series secured Ireland Women’s Sevens squad Olympic qualification for the first time ever, with the country having previously just missed on making the cut for Rio and Tokyo.

Allan Temple-Jones’ side will face off against Great Britain in their curtain raiser in Paris, which will be followed by much-anticipated encounters with South Africa and Australia, and Larn insists this Ireland squad has the potential to produce a strong run.

“We’re going in confident” she insisted. “We’ve played all these teams multiple times in the series, and we feel we’re definitely in the running.

“We put in all the hard work this year and everyone’s just really excited to be able to go out there and show what we’ve worked for on this stage.

“We’ve been training hard, making sure we have that clarity among the team and that everyone knows their role” she said.

Larn, who played all her underage rugby with Athy RFC, enjoyed inter-provincial 15s success with Leinster Under 18s before being invited to play for the Leinster Sevens in an inter-pro tournament from which they emerged runners-up.

Selected to take part in an Ireland Under 18 Sevens camp, Larn and the national squad scooped bronze at the Rugby Europe Under 18 Women’s Sevens Championship in Prague in July 2022, before she stepped up to the Senior Development squad and then penned an Ireland Sevens contract in 2023.

It has a been a remarkable journey so far for the young Larn, who was a highly-rated footballer for Kildare, the Castlemitchell player captaining her county to the Leinster Minor A Championship crown two years ago.

She began to break into Diane O’Hora’s senior panel in 2023, playing a number of league outings, but missed out on their TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship Final victory over Clare after having broken her wrist in her Senior International Sevens debut in Hamburg just the previous month.

Larn’s decision to take up rugby sevens full-time has taken her to the highest level in the sport - a remarkable achievement for the Kildare woman, who only turned 20 last Sunday.

“I’m full-time rugby now. I haven’t played football in nearly a year” said Larn.

“The last time I played was with the Kildare seniors last season.

“But I’m just so happy to be going to the Olympics. My family are so proud and excited for me. My mam and dad and friends are all going over, so there’ll be a good crew there in Paris” she smiled.