GREEN READY FOR AUSSIES
2021 OCEANIA SEVENS
OLYMPICS gold medallist Ellia Green goes one step closer to defending the gold medal in Tokyo after this weekend’s Oceania 7’s
The series, across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, is just what both teams need after the matches were organised to fill the void left by the cancellation of World Series events because of the pandemic.
The Fiji-born speedster made her return to sevens rugby after a wellmanaged recovery from a knee surgery competing at last month’s Trans-Tasman trials against New Zealand in Auckland.
“Ellia has been running at very close to top-end pace at every session over the past bit of time and has integrated into full training over the past three weeks,” said head coach Manenti .
“Ellia played our internal tournament in February and she hasn’t really missed a great deal because there’s not been a lot to miss.
“This is the series the girls have all been craving...top opposition, tournament conditions and the chance to push for Olympic selection.”
Manenti was delighted with the way Rio Olympics gold medallist Chloe Dalton and Alysia LefauFakaosilea returned from injury in the Aon University Sevens series last month.
The dynamic Lefau-Fakaosilea was a matchwinner for Griffith University while Dalton tested her back the best way possible.
“Chloe told me she was hitting rucks she might not normally have hit just to test herself out.
“She was making tackles too so it was all positive after both girls were a little rusty to start as expected,” Manenti said.