Two young rugby players from Naas part of Irish 7s squad hoping to seal Olympic qualification

Naas duo Adam Byrne and Billy Dardis have been named as part of the Irish Rugby 7s squad for the upcoming Olympic Repechage in Monaco this weekend.

The tournament represents Ireland's last opportunity to seal a place in this summer's Olympics in Rio, but they have been placed alongside Samoa, Zimbabwe and Tonga in a hugely challenging group. Ireland need to win the competition to seal a spot in Rio, and they are coming off the back of a successful weekend at the Rugby Europe Competition in Sweden, meaning confidence should be high.

Byrne and Dardis are both members of the Leinster rugby academy, and the duo have enjoyed plenty of game time with the Leinster A team this year, with Byrne even scoring a number of tries for the first team. The pair, now 22, have also been capped at U20 level for Ireland, and their speed and agility makes them ideal players for the demanding 7s game.

"The side have been developing well over the past number of months and last weekend's result in Malmö shows that we have a talented group of players in our squad.

This competition is going to be a big challenge. Obviously every team is there to win and be rewarded with the final position in Rio. We've been drawn with Samoa, who are certainly one of the favourites in the competition, also in our pool are Tonga and Zimbabwe and they have a lot of 7s experience.