Offaly's Burns scores try as Ireland finish eighth in Olympics sevens

TULLAMORE rugby player Megan Burns and her Ireland women's sevens side have finished eighth in the Olympic Games in Paris.

The 24-year-old physiotherapist wrote her own chapter in history by scoring a try in Ireland's final outing of the games this evening (Tuesday).

Despite losing that seventh/eighth place play-off to Great Britain, it was still a fantastic achievement for the Irish to reach the quarter-finals in the country's first ever appearance at the Olympics.

Burns was prominent for Ireland throughout the tournament, showing her strength and skills on several occasions at the Stade de France.

Her personal highlight will be crossing the line in the first half of the play-off against the British, a score which brought the Irish back into the game before coming out on the wrong end of a 28-12 final scoreline.

At the beginning of a fast-paced competition, Ireland were placed in Pool B with South Africa, Australia and Great Britain.

They beat South Africa, ran Great Britain close and were defeated by Australia.

Ireland qualified for the quarter-finals as one of the best third placed teams but were handed a rematch with Australia, Olympic champions in 2016 and runners-up last time out in Tokyo.

Australia again defeated Ireland on Monday night to reach the semi-final and that result sent the girls in green into the play-offs for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place.

This afternoon they needed to beat France to clinch fifth place but lost again, despite leading the hosts at half-time.

Seventh place was still available and though Burns and teammate Claire Boles scored tries in the ultimate match against Team GB, Ireland had to settle for eighth place.