Caslick up for Coast debut
NEXT month’s edition of the Women’s University Sevens Series on the Gold Coast is set to provide an ideal taste for fans ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The four-part series will kick-off this weekend with a two-day tournament in Launceston before coming to a head at Bond University on September 29-30.
Bond are one of eight competing teams and will boast the services of Australian stars including Charlotte Caslick and Brooke Walker.
Caslick has been impressed by the talent and enthusiasm already displayed by the young squad and says they particularly have their eye on success at home.
“We obviously get to play at home in Bond so that will be a really special one that we hopefully can play really well at,” she said.
It could prove a timely prelude to the Olympic goldmedal winning Australian side’s return to the Coast next April in pursuit of Commonwealth Games glory.
Sevens was one of the prestigious event’s most soughtafter tickets.
“Hopefully being able to play at Bond University for the Aon comp (Women’s University Sevens Series) just gets a Gold Coast crowd in and they hopefully will come back and watch us when we play at the Comm Games,” Caslick said.
After a boom year for women’s rugby, the next 12 months shape as another massive phase for the sport.
The inaugural university series – which Caslick recognised as being crucial for increasing match opportunities for professional and amateur players – leads into the first round of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai on December 1-2.
Australia were runners-up to New Zealand last year and are out to turn the tables on their trans-Tasman rivals, who they defeated in the Olympic gold medal playoff.
Next year there is the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April and then the World Cup at San Francisco in July.
“It’s been incredible how much it has grown in just the last 18 months,” Caslick said.
“There’s girls playing every weekend now from under-10s all the way to under-18s so it’s great that they have got that opportunity to play, whereas when we were going through we didn’t have a chance to play during school.”