Cherry on top of road ahead
Cherry knows the responsibility resting on her shoulders.
As the most experienced member of the first Australian women’s sevens side to compete at the Commonwealth Games, the Roma-raised centre is all too aware of the legacy she and her teammates will create on the Coast.
“It’s very special to be groundbreaking. The Commonwealth Games means so much to Australia so we’re excited to be here as the first women’s team representing rugby sevens,” the 25-year-old, capped 26 times, said.
“Just to see women’s sport in Australia grow like it has and see the media catch up onto it, it’s very special for us to be a part of that. I went to school in Toowoomba and I think four years ago they had a women’s (sevens) tournament and they were struggling to get 20 players.
“I went back there after Rio and there was 200 and something players that wanted to play so just to see that grow and see the excitement (is great). When you talk to people and they say ‘when my daughter grows up I want her to play rugby sevens’, that’s an awesome thing to hear for us.
“We’re doing everything we can just to give back to those young ones so they can grow up and have idols.”
Cherry and her teammates arrived on the Gold Coast yesterday, desperate to add Games silverware to the Olympic gold they won on debut in Rio.
They will head into the three-day sevens competition, beginning on April 13, as strong favourites after winning the first two legs of the 2017-18 World Series.
“It would be very special (to win gold here). To be the first women’s rugby sevens team to start with at the Olympics, and then win gold at that, was absolutely incredible,” she said.
“We’ve got a lot of Queenslanders in our team – I think there’s 10 or so in the (squad of) 14 – so there’ll be a lot of familiar faces around that hopefully we can celebrate with after. It’s really nice to be back in Queensland and see all the family and friends and for them to be able to witness something like the Commonwealth Games at home is really exciting.”