Name: Claire Boles
Event: Rugby sevens (reserve)
Age: 26
Claire Boles hails from Enniskillen and began her rugby career at school. She played XVs rugby before being selected for the under-18 sevens in 2018, making her debut in 2017. Boles made her XVs debut in 2019 in the Six Nations. She had surgery on a hamstring injury in 2020 but made the squad for the 2021 Six Nations.
Boles was on the same Enniskillen and Ulster under-18 team as future Ireland XVs team-mate Kathryn Dane, that won the Under-18 interprovincial title in 2016. Boles studied chemical engineering in UCD and has a twin, Katie, who also plays rugby.
The team qualified in May 2023 with a 10-5 win over Fiji in the fifth-place semi-final of the World Rugby Sevens Series. Qualifying for an Olympics has been a long-fought battle for the women's side, narrowly missing out on qualification in the last two Olympic cycles.
The sevens side won their first world tournament at the SVNS Series Cup in Perth in January, which bodes well for momentum going into the Olympic Games. The side finished sixth at the SVNS Grand Final in Madrid in June.
