Aussie melting pot on boil for Rio
Brendan Gallagher runs the rule over the Women’s Sevens’ Olympic hopefuls
WOMEN’S Rugby is surfing a wave at present, attracting all sorts of different athletes from different disciplines and probably no team represents that better than the current World Series champions and Olympic favourites Australia.
Four years ago half the current Australia squad weren’t playing Rugby Union regularly let alone Sevens but with an Olympics Sevens tournament beginning to loom large everything was about to change. Australia coach Tim Walsh started casting the net wide to augment a hard core of established players such as Nicole Beck and skipper Sharni Williams, although even the latter was an outstanding hockey player before she turned to rugby.
You would, of course, expect nothing less from Australia where traditionally nothing tops Olympic success, but Australia’s experience is a powerful demonstration of the galvanising effect that Olympic status can have on a sport.
Lineout and re-starts ace Chloe Dalton has switched from basketball and the Sydney Flames in the Women’s National Basketball League, while flying Ellia Green, who could emerge as one of the stars of the Olympic tournament, had represented Australia as a junior in the 100m.
Emma Tonegato was a Women’s Rugby League international, as was Amy Turner, while Charlotte Caslick was the Australian Schools 800m champion before taking up touch rugby, which is very big in Australia with the mixed leagues proving particularly popular. Caslick, Emilee Cherry – the World Series player of the season two years ago – Alicia Quirk, Gemma Etheridge and Evania Pelite were all Australia touch internationals before they made the switch to competitive Sevens.
Boxer Lauryn Eagle was keen to get involved and tried out in training but failed to make the cut. Athletes of all shapes and sizes applied and if Australia can conjure up a gold medal in Rio you suspect that encouraging situation will only mushroom further.
“As a coach it’s been a challenge because we have had an amazing, very unique, array of talent from very different backgrounds to work with but also areas of obvious weakness or more accurately a lack of experience – such as tackling and the contact area,” says Walsh.
“It’s been a big melting pot of raw talent. All these wonderful athletes but almost completely different levels of skill. The players came in and built it all themselves, which has been crucial. It is theirs and they have grown with it. That’s the most enjoyable thing, around the programme, is actually having built it almost from scratch.”
This year’s World Series title was the result of three individual tournament wins – Dubai, Sao Paulo and Georgia while there was a runners up spot in Paris and a third place in Canada. All season long they have been the team to beat and that will be the situation again in Brazil but there is a subtle change as Walsh explains.
“I’m really pleased with the whole season, the way that we progressed as a team and as individuals and it couldn’t be better preparation leading into Rio but the Olympics will be very different. The World Series is about consistency but Rio is going to be a one-off tournament.
“Other teams will be fitter than before and stronger and inspired by the occasion. Everybody will go to a new level. Rio is where all the team will have planned to peak and we are no different to that but we need to be aware that teams we have been playing all season might be a very different proposition in the Olympics.”
The sides most likely to challenge Australia are New Zealand, Canada and Great Britain, who finished second third and fourth respectively in the World Series although Great Britain mustered as England.
The Kiwis will be on a mission, they always are when it comes to rugby, and rather like their men face the challenge of bouncing back after being top dogs for years.The New Zealand ladies won the first three World Series (2013-15) before losing out to Australia this time around while they also fell from their perch at the fifteens World Cup in 2014. They remain formidable but the aura of invincibility no longer exists.
New Zealand have, however, been strengthened by the return from injury of Huriana Manuel and Kayla McAllister – sister of All Black Luke – and still boast a very special attacking weapon in speed merchant and try machine Portia Woodman whose father and uncle were both All Black tourists. Skipper Sarah Gross knows that Rio is going to be difficult though. “It’s all about being resilient and adaptable but we have a great mix of really experienced players and we all have our parts to play.”
Of the other superpowers in the women’s game Canada are perhaps the most difficult to read, this is after all a team so confident in the talent available that they feel able to leave speedster and RWC2014 star Magali Harvey at home, a decision greeted with some
“Teams will be fitter than before and stronger and inspired by the occasion”
relief by prospective opponents.We are not privy to the thinking behind that call but its puzzling to say the least, it is hard to think of many players in the women’s game with more raw pace and x-factor.
But Canada remain a big threat. They have finished second or third in all four World Series competitions to date and in points machine Ghislane Landry have unearthed another star of world standing. Meanwhile former college basketball star Megan Lukan, once a starting guard at the University of Wisconsin, is becoming increasingly influential as is experienced fifteens flanker Kelly Russell who played at RWC2014.
Canada and Great Britain are in Pool C and both should emerge comfortably enough but their clash will be an early indicator as to where the medals might go. Great Britain, essentially England plus Wales wing Jasmine Joyce, have fired only sporadically but clearly have the raw material to mount a major challenge.
Realistically you wouldn’t look outside those four nations for the medals but as ever with the Olympics there is much interest elsewhere. Colombia’s qualification is a fairytale – getting it absolutely right on the day to defeat hot favourites Argentina in the South America qualifying tournament – and their presence is a welcome boost to the game in an unexpected area of the world geographically.
Nor will they be the only Spanishspeaking team in Rio with Spain’s tigerish ladies refusing to accept defeat in the repechage tournament in Dublin to qualify ahead of the more fancied Russian team.
Spanish rugby is enjoying something of a renaissance at present but they have been competitive on the women’s circuit, in both versions of the game, for a long while. They will travel with hope if not expectation.
Spain actually offer the best chance of a genuine upset with their crunch game being the first of the entire Olympic tournament, against France at 11am on August 6. Win that, and assuming they lose to New Zealand, the Spaniards would simply need to beat an extremely inexperienced Kenyan team to make the quarter-finals. Such is the stuff of Olympic dreams.
Hosts Brazil will be outclassed in their Pool C games against Canada and GB – it is difficult to make out a case for their even coming close – so their ‘final’ will be against Japan, a match in which they should be competitive. A win in that game would be a mighty triumph for Brazil on the day but, more importantly, could open the eyes to Brazilian women from other sports as to Rugby Sevens possibilities. And Australia have already shown where that could lead to.