Ireland captain Lucy Mulhall Rock has confirmed her retirement from sevens rugby after the conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympic campaign.
The 30-year-old, who has played 213 games for Ireland on the World SVNS Series, made the announcement following Ireland's 8th place finish in Paris.
"It’s been the honour of my life to play for and captain the Ireland women’s sevens team for the past 10 years but now it’s time for me to step aside and watch my amazing teammates and friends take this team forward and onto bigger and better things," the Wicklow native said in a post on Instagram.
Mulhall Rock was one of the original 19 women who were contracted to the sevens programme when it went professional in late 2014, and has captained Ireland since they began their first Olympic qualification campaign in Kazan, Russia, in 2015.
A former inter-county footballer with Wicklow, she scored 812 points for Ireland, including 49 tries, on the SVNS Series, and has also won four caps for Ireland’s XVs team, most recently in the 2022 Six Nations.
After missing out on qualification for both the 2016 and 2020 games in Rio and Tokyo, Mulhall Rock and Ireland finally reached their Olympics goal when they secured their place through their World SVNS placing last year, before they won their first event on the world series in Perth in January.
Unfortunately, injury prematurely ended the Rathdrum clubwoman’s Olympics campaign, picking up a knock in Ireland’s second pool game against South Africa and missing out on the defeats to Australia, France and Great Britain.
"I felt head over heels in love with sevens since it first came into my life in 2014," she added.
"It’s taught me so much over these years... about failure and how to bounce back from it, about humility and the importance of it, about winning and how it doesn’t fulfil us, about resilience, empathy, kindness, hard work, commitment, pride, heart.
"But more than any of this it taught me that life’s all about who we spend it with, how we make them feel, how we lift them up and how we leave a mark on people's lives that last long after we’ve left the room.
"I’ve met some of the most incredible people through this game and made friends that I know will last my lifetime. I’ve also relied on my loved ones more than anyone should ever expect of anyone and I will be forever grateful to them for helping me live out my dreams.
"I look forward to watching, supporting and being proud of this Ireland women’s sevens team and when we stand for."
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
