Ireland's Rugby Sevens team are just two games away achieving Olympic qualification at the European Games in Poland.
They booked their place in a semi-final clash with Portugal after a 26-12 win over Belgium in Krakow on Monday.
Ireland's last four clash with Portugal is scheduled to get under way at 12.58pm Irish time on Tuesday after the Portuguese easily saw off Georgia at the quarter-final stage.
READ MORE: Ireland men's Sevens into Olympic qualifier semi-final against Portugal
After initially going behind against Belgium, James Topping’s side stepped it up a gear in the second half to comfortably progress to the semi-finals. Belgium got the opening scores of the game before patient build-up from the Irish saw Dylan O’Grady score a try under the posts to level the game. Terry Kennedy’s try which was converted by Mark Roche gave Ireland a seven point lead at the interval.
Liam McNamara scored an impressive second half double of tries to push Ireland further clear, with Roche converting one of his attempts. Belgium fought on bravely and managed to score one more try however it was too little too late at that stage.
Ireland’s Jordan Conroy said after the game: “It’s always a little bit nerve wracking, every team is going to bring their A game, so we have to bring our best. I think we’re still building to day three so there’s more to come.
Kennedy added: “We’ve played them plenty of times before. I mean they’re a really tough team with different strengths so they’ll challenge us, so we’re going to have to be at our best to make sure we come through again.”
Having not been able to travel to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics a large Irish contingent were vocal in the stands. The prospect of those supporters getting to see the side play at the Olympics in Paris next year is serving as motivation for the team.
“We want to do it for them as much as ourselves,” Conroy said.
The final, should Ireland progress, is pencilled in for 8:35pm Irish time on Tuesday. A place at the Olympics is the ultimate prize for the winners.
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