Bonded by their contrasting personalities and motivated after "devastating" rugby setbacks earlier in their careers, the Ireland 7s team are coming to terms with their Olympic achievement.
The underdogs booked their ticket to the Tokyo Games with an unlikely victory over France in the World Rugby Sevens repechage final in Monaco.
Having only reformed the men's programme in 2015 and qualified for the event courtesy of a third-place finish at the Rugby Europe Qualifiers in Colomiers two years ago, Anthony Eddy’s side will now become the first Irish rugby team to compete at the Games after the 28-19 win at Stade Louis II.
"It really was overwhelming really when the final whistle went," captain Billy Dardis told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
"We started laughing on the pitch, it was just unbelievable."
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🙌 This is a special interview with a special person. Billy Dardis, the Ireland Men's Sevens Captain 💚#ShoulderToShoulder #IrishRugby #TokyoOlympics @TritonLake
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Dardis gave an emotionally-charged post-match interview and while he says he struggled to articulate what it meant immediately after the full-time whistle - "you don’t really know how to describe what it feels like" - reality is beginning to kick in.
"This morning I have mulled on it a little and it’s starting to sink in how big an achievement it is. I’m getting a sense of the sheer size of what we have done."
Given that only the victors of the tournament secured Olympic qualification, Dardis admitted that the experience was full of tension throughout.
"It becomes a miserable weekend. You feel the pressure and there’s no release on that pressure valve until that final whistle in the final."
The team captain says it has been a "rocky old road" since Ireland fell at the same hurdle in 2016. Failure to qualify for a World Series left the players feeling deflated, "even bitter", but there were signs of progress; a third-place finish in London, a World Cup Challenge Trophy in San Francisco.
For the past two years, all energies have gone into Olympic qualification.
"The performance didn’t come out of nowhere."
The team dynamic has been at the heart of the success and Dardis couldn't speak highly enough of the unique atmosphere within the camp.
"Sevens is funny, it brings people from all walks of life. We’re a strange, odd, twisted group of lads that don’t really fit...there are probably clashes left, right and centre.
Anyone can fit in, once you just be yourself
"You have Greg from Love Island who is also a law student, Jordan Conroy has played for Athlone Town, Aaron Sexton is one of the fastest schoolboys of all-time. Terry Kennedy is like Matilda at maths, but is the coolest customer you could have. I have no doubt he went onto the pitch yesterday thinking, 'we’re going to walk this’
"You have Harry McNulty who is this social media influencer and is the life and soul of the party. He wanted to spend the year in LA but came back and just slotted right in.
"Anyone can fit in, once you just be yourself.
"To say I am leading this group of people is pretty cool, but I don’t actually have to do much. Everyone knows what they do. You just have to let people be themselves, do their thing and enjoy it, but hammer home to focus on each moment.
"It is certainly a special group of lads."
Perhaps what binds the group tighter than anything else is the motivation to prove people wrong. Sevens hasn’t traditionally featured high on the list of IRFU priorities, but individually, the players have had to cope with their own playing setbacks to reach this high point.
"What is common amongst us all is we have all tasted a bit of devastation prior to going into Sevens. We have all played in academies, would have had provincial aspirations and go on for Ireland
"A lot of us have been told ‘you’re not going to do that’ and we have been moved on.
"That’s pretty tough. We have all come together and there is a bit of a chip on the shoulder mentality about that.
"That can really fog your mind if you were to channel that one way, but I think Anthony Eddy has done a pretty incredible job to channel it all together.
"We have managed to do something really special."
