It was at that marquee invitational tournament in Asia where Ireland's charge towards the '93 World Cup began. "We got a little bit of confidence from how relatively well we did in Hong Kong," Wallace remembers. All three were World Cup winners and they were joined by a 20-year-old Matt Burke who would subsequently hoist the Webb Ellis trophy in 1999. "Just like at the ’91 World Cup and the Hong Kong Sevens, Australia did it to us again," he says. "From the first World Cup on, the unions who took it seriously, took it more seriously, whereas Ireland really didn’t apply any resources to the Sevens game after the ’93 World Cup," he says.

Source: Irish Independent April 16, 2018 17:57 UTC