James Topping: Ireland sevens have depth to thrive in Paris

Ireland sevens coach James Topping feels they now have a squad to compete with the best in the world after the disappointment of Tokyo.

The men's team secured their spot in Paris by taking gold at the European Games in Krakow last night, defeating Great Britain 26-12 in the final, with Jordan Conroy scoring a brace of tries to seal the win after earlier tries from Billy Dardis and Terry Kennedy.

It's the second successive Olympic qualification for the men's side, who failed to escape the group in Tokyo after losses to United States and South Africa. They ultimately wound up losing the ninth place match to Kenya, who they accounted for in the group phase.

However, the win in Krakow indicates to Topping that the depth is there to mount a better challenge next summer.

"We left a lot out there in the Olympics last time," Topping told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1.

"We were very disappointed with our performance. We've got a chance to have a year of preparation going into that.

"The last time, we had a squad of maybe 14 players really. It was a case of whoever wasn't getting injured was getting selected at that stage. It was really hard to try and compete with the top teams.

"Now, we've got a fantastic squad. There's about 24 contracted guys. We've got the use of the academy players as well.

"We've got our target, we can do a lot of planning and looking forward. These guys set the benchmark for a lot of guys.

"For us as a programme, it's where we want to be."

For Ireland captain Harry McNulty, the victory was built on the team's solid defence, as well as their discipline.

The latter proved especially crucial when Britain's Robbie Ferguson was yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on shortly before the break, after which Ireland