‘I want our sevens team to be put on RTÉ’ – Ireland’s Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe wants to inspire the next generation

When she gets married in November, two of her four bridesmaids will be team-mates from the Ireland sevens squad.

Lucy Rock [nee Mulhall] and Stacey Flood will join Murphy Crowe’s two sisters in her bridal party. Her hen takes place a fortnight after they make their Olympic debut in Paris next month. The friends who play together, stay together.

It’s been another year of crowning moments for Murphy Crowe. It was her and Rock who scored the first-half tries in their 19-14 win over Australia in Perth in January for their first win on the world series.

While their season was also disrupted with injuries and players switching to Six Nations, Murphy Crowe still scored 33 tries to bring her career total to 197 tries in 228 games.

It is 10 years since Murphy Crowe – who stood in as Ireland captain while Rock was injured – made her debut.

And finally, on the third time of asking, the women’s team will get to play at the Olympics. Did the Tipperary player ever fear it wouldn’t happen?

“I suppose there’s doubts in your mind. It’s probably the worst thing that you have as an athlete, there are those little doubts in your mind. But I believed every ounce of it coming up to that qualification,” says Murphy Crowe (29). “We’ve done so much preparation and there’s still more to come.”

Their world series games are only available to watch on a stream, or you might catch video vignettes on social media. The Olympics will give them a whole new platform.

“I want our sevens team to be put on RTÉ. This is what all our girls want and that’s an opportunity for us to showcase what we can do,” Murphy Crowe adds. “It’s going to be great to see that exposure.

“You could inspire some young boy or girl to actually want to be an Olympian for Ireland, which is the purpose of our programme – and why we play this sport is just to inspire the next generation.

“I know I’ve been inspired through Sonia O’Sullivan, through Katie Taylor, through Kellie Harrington, through the Irish hockey girls, they are all inspirations that I took throughout watching the Olympic Games.”

The last time Murphy Crowe played 15s for Ireland was the 2022 Women’s Six Nations. With qualification also secured for next year’s Rugby World Cup in England, would she consider switching codes again?

“I haven’t fully decided what I’m going to do after Paris at the moment. But you never know.”

It will be a different stage in Paris this summer but Murphy Crowe will still be a major try-scoring threat. Something old, something new.