IRELAND WOMEN ENJOYED a comfortable 34-5 win over Spain in this morning’s Sevens’ series in Cape Town before losing 15-0 to France in the afternoon fixture.

Eve Higgins ran over a couple of early tries – with the extras – while Hannah Clarke also helped herself to a brace in the eighth and 13th minute.

Megan Burns and Beibhinn Parson got in on the act too but they were unable to build on the momentum against the French. Anne-Cecile Ciofani, Lili Dezou and Hawa Tounkara got their tries.

Teams have been split into four pools of three, with the four group winners progressing straight through to the semi-finals. The second-placed teams will enter the 5th-8th place play-offs, with those in third fighting it out for the lower rankings from ninth to 12th.

For the men’s side, they were on the wrong end of a 36-7 scoreline against South Africa in their opener and then lost out 29-7 to Argentina a few hours later.

Josh Costello got their sole consolation try in game one, with a Tadhg Brophy conversion, in the ninth minute. The hosts had already ran over in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and eighth minutes through David Brits, Quewin Nortje and Impi Visser, before Mfundo Ndhlovu rounded off the scoring.

Argentina got off to a sharp start later in the day when Santiago Mare and Joaquin Pellandini ran over. Costello and Brophy were again the scoring combination for Ireland but Marcos Moneta, Agustin Fraga and Luciano Gonzalez responded.