Four players from the Irish provinces will be given a chance the chance to earn a place in the Ireland men's Sevens team for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Following on from the news that Antoine Dupont is set to play for the hosts France in the Olympic Sevens, and former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper is targeting a place in his country's squad, IRFU performance director David Nucifora says a similar opportunity will be afforded to players contracted to the four provinces.
One player from each of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht will be identified in the coming months to try their hand at the shorter form of the game, and feature in the closing stages of the SVNS World Series.
"More than likely that player will be a player that has come through the Sevens programme at some stage, so they're familiar with the game," Nucifora said.
"It will also be a fact that we'll work with the province and the player and look to integrate that player, or players, in the back end of this season to be able to see where they fit and whether they can earn their selection in the Olympic squad, which will probably be named in late June or early July.
"So any players we look to bring in will have to be people that we think can add value significantly to the current squad."
All four provinces boast players with Sevens experience, including Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien and Will Connors at Leinster, Shane Daly at Munster, Andrew Smith and Liam McNamara at Connacht, and Robert Baloucoune, Cormac Izuchukwu, Nick Timoney and Aaron Sexton at Ulster.
Nucifora didn't specify whether any current internationals would be chosen, but clarified that if they were, they would still be involved with Ireland for the Six Nations championship in the spring.
"They'd still certainly be playing the Six Nations if they were selected," he added.
"The lead-in time would look at how it effects and works in with their provincial requirements at the moment so it might be that a player might come and play a tournament, one of the World Series tournaments prior to the end and then go back into provincial rugby, then come back again.
"It will just be a management scenario of how we look at each player and each provincial team, how we might do that.
"Then we'll make a decision on how many of those eligible players, we're looking at a maximum of four, we might take none, we might take four.
"I suppose that’s something we’ve just got to work out, who can add value to the group, helping us towards winning an Olympic gold medal."
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