Carlow Siblings impress for Ireland at the World Cup of touch Rugby

The 2024 Touch Rugby World Cup took place in Nottingham recently from 15th – 21st July and a Carlow brother and sister were central players on two of the Ireland teams that played in the tournament.

Touch Rugby is six-a-side, non-contact version of rugby which is very popular in Australia and New Zealand where it happens to be the number one participation sport. Here in Ireland, it is growing in popularity with nearly 500 players.

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Ian O’Malley from Carlow Town was a key player for the Ireland Mixed over 30s (MX30s) team that came 10th in their division in Nottingham. Ian has been playing Touch Rugby for Ireland at various levels for over 12 years and has been capped over 70 times. He previously played for many years with the Old Belvedere Touch Rugby club but now lives in Switzerland and plays Touch there.

Ian’s sister Emer is also an experienced Touch Rugby international for over 10 years and she was a leading player for the Ireland Women’s 35s (W35s) team that came 7th in their division. Emer was joint top scorer for the W35s scoring 5 tries over the 7 games.

She was previously a member of the Ireland W35s team that took bronze in the 2022 European Touch Championships and is based in Dublin where she plays with Old Belvedere Touch. Ian and Emer have in fact played together on a number of occasions for Ireland Mixed Touch teams between 2012 and 2016, most notably when winning a European Silver medal with the MX30s team in 2016.