THERE WAS DISAPPOINTMENT for the Ireland men’s and women’s teams in their playoff fixtures at the Sevens’ series in Cape Town today.

The men’s team were defeated by Australia in a ninth place semi-final with Bryan Mollen’s seventh-minute try coming between tries for Australia in the fourth and 12th minute courtesy of James Turner and Aden Ekanayake. Hayden Sargeant had one conversion for Australia while Mark Roche converted Mollen’s effort.

They subsequently lost their 11th-12th place playoff to Uruguay on a scoreline of 12-7. Juan Manuel Tafernaberry gave the winners an early lead with a try in the second minute which he also converted. Uruguay held that 7-0 into half-time but Mark Roche struck back with a try for Ireland in the 14th minute which was converted by Tadhg Brophy.

But Guillermo Lijtenstein crossed over for Uruguay’s second try before the end to snatch victory for Uruguay.

The women’s team were also unsuccessful in their seventh-eighth place playoff, losing out 24-7 to Great Britain.

Katie Shillaker helped Great Britain into a 10-0 half-time lead with a brace of tries in the first and fifth minute. Ellie Boatman and Reneeqa Bonner extended their advantage with further tries in the 11th and 14th minute with Eloise Hayward converting both scores.

Eve Higgins supplied Ireland’s only try of the game in the 15th minute, and added the conversion.

Before that, Ireland lost their fifth place semi-final by four points to Japan. It was a high-scoring encounter with Megan Burns, Hannah Clarke, Erin King and Anna McGann all providing tries for Ireland. Japan grabbed four tries, three of which were converted, to edge the clash 26-22.