Knights ramp up women’s pathway
COLLEGES’ women’s rugby program has been the beneficiary of Griffith University’s Aon Uni Sevens Series success. Now they’re out to return the favour.
Griffith soared to be crowned overall Aon champions last year.
As was the case when Australia won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, a triumph has translated into an uplift in participation.
“As a club we have seen a huge numbers spike recently due to how successful the Aon girls were,” player Ashleigh said.
The Griffith affiliated club currently has under-17 and opens female teams in place – both are mentored by onetime Wallaby Richie Kingi – and want to expand their program further to help funnel players in the right direction.
“Eventually we want under-13s, under-15s, under-17s and opens so that way we can nurture them from a young age and everyone is on the same page,” Kingi said.
“That’s the pathway (to Aon) that we want to create.” Colleges Cooksley
Among the club’s exciting rising talent is Tiana Raftstrand-Smith.
The 15-year-old is part of the Australian Youth Development Program, for which she travels to Sydney sporadically.
“I’m trying to work on getting up to that Aon level and national level,” RaftstrandSmith said.
Originally from New Zealand, she is in her third year in Australia and fourth year of playing rugby.
“I was playing rugby league and couldn’t play with the boys anymore so then I swapped to rugby,” Raftstrand-Smith said.
“Ever since then I have always loved the game of sevens.”
The Knights’ opens sevens squad have not been quite as dominant as their under-17 clubmates but Cooksley, 22, feels they too progress.
“We have a big mixture of inexperience and then very experienced players, ranging from people who haven’t played much to people that will go on to play in our very competitive Aon team,” she said.
“We have improved so much. Our skill set has definitely improved with Richie’s coaching as well as Matt (Chapman).
“It’s awesome to see the different experience levels and then having that direct pathway from this competition to the Aon.” are making
WE HAVE A BIG MIXTURE OF INEXPERIENCE AND THEN VERY EXPERIENCED PLAYERS. WE HAVE IMPROVED SO MUCH ASHLEIGH COOKSLEY