Hannah Tyrrell can understand Six Nations departures during sevens World Cup year

Hannah Tyrrell says she can understand why some players departed Ireland's Six Nations squad in the middle of the tournament.

Six players joined up with the national sevens squad as they jetted off to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Canada ahead of last Sunday's humbling for the 15s against England.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens are due to take place in Cape Town in September, with Ireland involved in qualifiers in July.

Back in February 2017 Tyrrell, alongside then 15s team-mates Alison Miller and Sene Naoupu, withdrew from the Ireland squad so that they could play in the Sevens World Series in Las Vegas.

And the current Dublin Gaelic footballer says she can understand why history has repeated itself this year.

"It's a very difficult situation to be in," she said at the 'Here We Go' Sport Ireland Campus launch.

"In Ireland we don't have the depth of playing numbers to be able to have two complete separate squads and be competitive at both.

"If you look at England, the numbers playing and the depth and experience they have is hugely significant because they're able to have two separate squads where there's no interference. Therefore there's no drawback when there's a clash like we've had these last couple of weeks.

"With Ireland I think it's been really beneficial on the 15s side to have those 7s players in and playing; there's some incredible players there.

"At the end of the day they're contracted to the 7s programme, which itself is a senior international team. I think that's something that people forget. I've heard a lot of people giving out about the 7s [players] being taken away from the 15s.

"But they're not gone to play in a mini blitz down the road! They've gone off to a senior international tournament on the world