Watch out Dubai. Terry Kennedy is back and in mischievous form after a short break from the sevens circuit where he was so clinical that he was crowned World Rugby men’s player of the year for 2022. A whopping 50 tries he bagged that season for Ireland, repeatedly running defenders ragged and leaving them confused as to how the flip you stop the serial scorer.
Terry, one more fifty, please? He smiled and stated, “I’ll give it a shot,” alerting RugbyPass to the fact that he is keen to return to rugby full-time following a curtailed 2022–2023 season during which he traveled to Sydney to explore life outside of it.
Living overseas and working in Australia’s private equity sector wasn’t meant to be part of his daily routine; the only planned diversion was to travel to Monaco to personally claim his world player trophy. He couldn’t help himself, though, when the call from home stated, “give us a dig-out.”
Taking up the narrative, he said, “I worked full-time for a while down in Sydney, Australia, and ended up
After growing up playing with the boys in Sydney and Hamilton in January, he rejoined the squad in May for the Olympic qualification. Thankfully, we finished the job there, had a little summer break, and now have a long enough pre-season to wait before traveling to Dubai.
“I was working with Triton Lake, the team sponsor. They have been my employer for nearly two years, and my first international experience was wonderful. You get to travel a lot when you work for the sevens, but living overseas is not the same. It was great, I had a great time, and it gave me fresh insight for when I got back.
“I went down the end of September (2022) and had a little bit of a break, still keeping myself fit and then I found
Since I was going to be playing with the guys in January, I put a lot of effort into being fit enough to participate in all of the running sessions that the S&C has here in Dublin during December.
“The jogging workouts help you stay in excellent shape, but nothing compares to match fitness, which is fortunate for me to have some
much time previously spent in New Zealand with them. I later had a slight wrist injury. It didn’t work out for me to play a little 15s down in Sydney, and by the time I got back, it was almost time to go back for the Olympic qualifiers.
Ireland will go to Paris in July to complete the revamped HSBC SVNS Series, which will culminate in a potentially dramatic grand final weekend in Madrid beginning on May 31. This is after clinching their spot in the Games in Krakow. Kennedy in particular is deserving of this accolade because he had a completely different course for his rugby career.
He played with James Ryan, Hugo Keenan, and Jacob Stockdale for the Ireland U20s squad that made it to the 2016 Junior Championship final in Manchester against England. Early in the 1980s, his father, an Ireland international, received caps.
Kennedy could have taken part in this weekend’s much-anticipated URC derby between Munster and Aviva Stadium after being inducted into the esteemed Leinster academy, but instead he’s packing his bags for a two-week trip that will include stops in Dubai and Cape Town, the first two legs of the recently redesigned eight-leg HSBC SVNS Series.
Why is that? In 2015, I played a small amount of sevens, and in 2016, I played between sevens and twentys.
I spent most of the World Cup in Manchester playing sevens, and then I got back, I spent a few years at the Leinster academy,” he remarked.
“I simply loved what we were doing here, and I really enjoyed the sevens.” Most males like to go the 15-second route, but I was content to take the 7-second way as I felt it was much more fun.
“I simply adore two things: traveling and playing large-scale running games where players put in a lot of effort for one another.” The game’s fast paced gameplay, global play options, and travel elements drew me in.
Ireland is now the genuine deal, having been a top circuit team in 2019 and finishing in fifth place in 2021–2022, a career best. They progressed to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup Sevens in Cape Town. Kennedy, 27, has expertise working behind the scenes, meanwhile, having spent his early years in the industry working at low-key events with significantly less resources.
He recalled, “It was different because some of the boys were at work or in college, so we were kind of part-time and trained in the evenings sometimes.” Still, we made the trip around the world and experienced some very delightful things as a consequence.
“We made a few wild excursions. traveled to Stellenbosch, South Africa, for training, and I had a blast there. Dubai was always a pleasant trip, even if we were taking part in the invitational tournament. That was intriguing since it led to an amazing vacation to Uruguay and Chile. I joked that I thought it was like Spain or Portugal, even though it was far away.
We still had a blast, it was just different. Presumably, you were not as well-cared for as you are on the show, where everything is planned out for you. We had some incredible memories from such trips, but you may run into some funny problems.
“You had to put in a lot of effort because you knew you were aiming for the HSBC circuit.” After not making it in 2018, we were forced to wait an entire year before trying again. Thankfully, we were permitted to enter the tournament full-time in 2019 after our success.
What does the Irish squad do to spend the long hours away overseas when it’s not playing or practicing? There’s not too many bookworms here since we play a lot of cards. That’s how we manage to be busy. A card shark is Mark Roche. We enjoy playing a variety of games; most lately, we’ve played blackjack and other such games. We get pleasure in doing this.
Less windows for enjoyment will be available for the more efficient 2023–2024 season—a redesign that is, in our opinion, rather positive.
“Although we thoroughly enjoy the weeks away and you practice hard, our main goal at this point is to win the tournament,” stated the aspiring Kennedy.
“Even though we will value the background work, our goal remains the same. You have the best chance of winning those gold medals if you consistently challenge yourself and elevate your standards leading up to the Olympics, which is what we are striving for.
It will be fantastic. There are only eight tournaments during the season, all of them are doubleheaders. Growing
Both sides of the game will be excellent, especially as the Olympics and most of the places we have been approaching become near.
Although Perth is new, we are enthusiastic. Madrid will be outstanding in the championship game. Speaking with some of the
The stadium looks amazing, and the Spanish team is expecting that a little more marketing would bring in a good-sized audience.
With men who have all been here for at least a year and a half, we have a really solid team this year. It truly makes a great difference because they are all well knowledgeable about their roles and all of its nuances.
It implies that we have that cohesiveness when we go out. We are pushing each other and there is a lot of competitiveness for spots. The training has been excellent. Hopefully, the Dubai team can present their best side.
