Larn treasures her part in momentous Olympic campaign for Ireland Women’s Sevens

Amy Larn will have no shortage of memories to cherish from what was a landmark summer for Ireland women’s sevens rugby at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The Athy woman, who only turned 20 before heading out to France as one of two reserves with Allan Temple-Jones senior international squad last month, got the chance to compete for her country in the Summer Games, as she was sprung from the bench in the closing stages of their quarter-final loss to Australia and later in their final classification match against Great Britain.

Ireland finished up eighth in what was the very first time the nation was represented in women’s sevens rugby on the Olympic stage.

And for Larn, the fact that she played an active part in such a momentous occasion for the sport in her country, is something she will treasure for a very long time.

“It was mad, because I never made my debut on the Sevens Series” she told The Kildare Nationalist.

“I know I went to Singapore, but I never actually got on, so to make my debut at the Olympics before I’d even been on the Series was unbelievable.

“I got on towards the end in the quarter-final against Australia and I also came on against Great Britain in the last game.

“The reserves don’t run out [with the team] and for the first few games we were watching from the stands, so even just running out on to the pitch in front of 66,000 was just unreal. None of the players have ever played in front of that many people. It was just amazing” she smiled.

Ireland’s first appearance at the Summer Games was marked by a narrow 21- 12 defeat at the hands of Great Britain, but they bounced back in superb fashion with a 38-0 demolition of South Africa.

The group phase was completed with another narrow loss, this time to Australia (19-14) whom they again met in the quarter finals, suffering a more emphatic 40-7 reversal on that occasion.

Temple-Jones squad were unable to regain any traction in the following classification matches, losing out 19-7 to tournament hosts, France, before carding a 28-12 defeat at the hands of Great Britain in the closing tie of the campaign.

“We have experienced players, but no one had ever experienced an Olympics before. It was just brand new for everyone” stressed Larn.

“We were ready to go and we’d beaten GB plenty of times in the past, so we knew it was definitely all to play for, but we just didn’t come out on the right side of that result.

“But we definitely weren’t deflated. We knew had South Africa, who, again, we’d played lots of times and we put on a really good performance against them.

“It just seemed that everything really clicked in that game. Sometimes you can play good rugby, but it still won’t lead to a try, but I think everything just gelled so well in that game and we got the result.

“We carried that performance through to our third pool game against Australia. We definitely did put it up to them and we were unlucky not to come away with the win.

“Australia are a good side. We beat them back in January to win the Series there in Perth, so we knew we could do it, but they’re a tough side.

“And, while we had gone so close to beating them in the pool game, we knew they wouldn’t make those mistakes again and, in that quarter final, they just put the foot down.

“The feeling in the camp at the end of it all was a lot more positive than you might think.

“At first we were disappointed when the whistle went, knowing that we didn’t get the result that we went out for. That was tough.

“But soon after, we quickly realised that this was our very first ever Olympics for women’s sevens in Ireland.

“This was our first time to qualify and I think it has just really helped promote the sport in Ireland, and we’re just really proud to be a part of that.

“The support we had in the stadium was amazing. We did a lap of the stadium after our last match and the amount of Irish people and even French people, looking for pictures and autographs, it was just a mad feeling.

“On top of that Lucy [Mulhall Rock], our captain, was retiring, so there was a lot of celebration for her, with this being her last tournament” she said.

Larn is now focused on building on this remarkable season that has seen her compete at the highest level at such a young age.

First up will be the next HSBC Sevens Series which starts in Dubai at the close of November, followed by stops in Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver and Hong Kong, with other destinations due to be announced later.

“The 15s World Cup is also taking place in 2025 so there might be a few girls who go over” said Larn.

“Personally, I’m going to focus on sevens, because I’m really enjoying that right now” added the Kildare woman, who is also likely to be keeping one eye fixed on the Sevens World Cup in 2026.