Birth name | Gregory O'Shea | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 23 March 1995 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Limerick, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Crescent College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
University | University of Limerick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gregory O'Shea (born 23 March 1995) is an Irish rugby union player. He played for the Ireland national rugby sevens team, usually as a fly-half. [1] In July 2019, O'Shea partnered with Amber Gill won the fifth series of Love Island . [2]
O'Shea is from Limerick, Ireland. [3] His father Niall O'Shea and mother Carol O'Shea (née Ho) [4] were both sprinters for Ireland. [5] O'Shea's family is from Limerick, except his maternal grandfather who is from Hong Kong. [6] O'Shea's maternal grandfather, Peter Ho, emigrated to Limerick from Hong Kong after World War II, opening up Limerick's first Chinese restaurant. [1]
O'Shea started playing rugby with local club Shannon when he was seven years old. O'Shea went to Scoil Íde in Corbally. [3] He then attended Crescent College Comprehensive. [3]
In 2017, O'Shea graduated from the University of Limerick School of Law with a law degree. [6]
At Crescent College, O'Shea won a Munster Schools Rugby Senior Cup with the school in 2013 when they defeated Rockwell College in the final, having also won Junior Cups in 2010 and 2011. [7] In addition to playing rugby, he was also a sprinter; when he was 16 he competed for Ireland at the 2011 European Youth Olympics 100m where he finished sixth. [5] It was O'Shea's last competitive race, as he decided to leave athletics behind and focus on rugby. [8]
O'Shea joined the Munster academy in 2013, playing mostly wing and fullback. O'Shea encountered a setback in 2015 when he fell off a bicycle and lacerated his achilles tendon, which took him a year until returning to full health. [9] Despite the injury, Munster extended his academy place for an additional year. O'Shea was unable to earn a place on the Munster senior team, and he left the province.
O'Shea then began playing with the Ireland national sevens team. [10] He played for Ireland at the 2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series, [11] where Ireland finished in second behind Russia. [12] [13] O'Shea struggled with injuries and missed the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifying tournament, [9] although he did make the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens squad.
O'Shea made the Ireland squad for the 2019 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier, helping the team win the tournament and qualify for the World Rugby Sevens Series. [8] [14] In June 2019, O'Shea played on the Paris 7s team. [15] He was part of Ireland's Rugby Sevens squad which began training in August 2019 for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. [1]
In November 2019 he was named in Ireland's squad for the World Sevens. [16]
In 2019, O'Shea won the fifth series of Love Island alongside Amber Gill, [2] with 49% of the final public vote. [17]
O'Shea joined Virgin Media Television in November 2022 as a presenter on The 6 O'Clock Show . [18]
Shannon Rugby Football Club is the most successful club in the All Ireland League, having won the competition nine times. They hail from Limerick near the banks of the Shannon river. Shannon RFC is a member of the Irish Rugby Football Union Munster Branch. The club is one of the top amateur sides in Ireland has seen many of its players progress to professional and international rugby. The 1st XV plays in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League. While the women's side compete in Division 1 of the Munster League. Shannon RFC fields underage teams for boys and girls from u6s - u20s. Shannon RFC made history in 2017 as being the first club in the country to field a girls u20s side.
Jeremiah Paul Flannery is an Irish rugby union former player and current coach. During his playing career, Flannery, a hooker, played for Munster and Ireland, before being forced to retire in March 2012 due to injury problems. He joined Munster as a coach before leaving in 2019, and, in 2020, joined English Premiership club Harlequins as their lineout coach.
The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
The English women's national rugby sevens team has competed in the Hong Kong Women's Sevens tournaments since 1997. England are also one of six teams announced by the International Rugby Board as "core teams" that will compete in all four rounds of the inaugural IRB Women's Sevens World Series in 2012–13. England won the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The Ireland women's national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens and Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics. Unlike the Ireland women's national rugby union team, the sevens team is a professional team with players contracted to the Irish Rugby Football Union.
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