Conroy's Olympic campaign comes to an end

The Olympic campaign of Tullamore's Jordan Conroy and his Ireland's Rugby Sevens teammates ended with a 10th placed finish this morning.

Ireland finished on low note when they were overwhelmed 22-0 by Kenya in the 9-10th place clash at Tokyo Stadium this morning.

The sides had met earlier in the pool stages, with Ireland taking the win 12-7 on that occasion, but Kenya took the game this morning head on from the start, building momentum throughout the opening half to lead 7-0 at half time.

Ireland struggled to find their rhythm in the game and another Kenyan try with three minutes remaining in the game left an uphill battle for the Irish. Kenya were on a roll though and added two more scores in quick succession to seal the win and their 9th place finish overall, with Ireland finishing in 10th.

Speaking after the game, Ireland’s Hugo Lennox said that the team had struggled to find their feet in the tournament.

“I think in Sevens it’s so important to get out of the blocks quickly and get a bit of momentum. That’s probably something we look to implement in our game and it’s something we didn’t find all tournament, which is really disappointing.”

His teammate Byran Mollen acknowledged the disappointment while looking forward to future tournaments, adding: “We want to show what we can do, and here we didn’t show it.”

Speaking of the potential of the group he said “We’ve got a really strong core group now including the lads back at home - a great squad at training, it’s just building now.”

Tullamore's Jordan Conroy was on the mark on Tuesday morning in the first of their 9-12 placed games with two tries in the 31-0 defeat of Korea.

Earlier on Tuesday, a last-minute try by Kenya knocked Ireland out of the top eight – and denied them a place in the quarter finals.

Despite defeating Kenya in their final group game by 12-7, it was a bittersweet first Olympic win for the Irish Rugby Sevens squad as the win was not enough to see them through to the quarter-final stages. Ireland came into Tuesday's clash with Kenya with the knowledge that they had to win by at least eight points in order to progress.

Early on, it looked like the dream was firmly in the bag, as an immense defensive effort throughout kept the Kenyan attack at bay, while Hugo Lennox and Harry McNulty were on hand to score two first half tries to see Ireland into a 12-0 lead at the break. A solid second half defensive display from the Irish kept the pressure off, but they were just unable to add more to their tally at the other end and, with 47 seconds to play, Kenya delivered the death blow, crossing the line for a converted try. Time ran out on Ireland, and though they won out 12-7, it was not enough to qualify.

Earlier in their two opening group games on Monday, Ireland lost 33-14 to South Africa and 19-17 to USA.