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'A really fun year': Australian and Irish Sevens stars crowned world's best
Australian Sevens star Charlotte Caslick and Ireland’s try-scoring phenomenon Terry Kennedy have been named the Sevens Players of the Year at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco.
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Caslick played a crucial role in the Australian Women’s Sevens teams incredible season, which championship success in multiple major events.
Australia won their first women’s World Series title since 2018 after a dramatic 21-17 win over reigning champions New Zealand in the Cup final in Langford, Canada.
The two traditional rugby rivals also went head-to-head in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which Australia won – before beating Fiji by 10 in the gold medal match.
Australia also added a World Cup crown to their decorated list of achievements in 2022 after beating New Zealand 24-22 in Cape Town.
Caslick, who won a gold medal with Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was nominated for the Women’s Sevens Player of the Year along with two teammates – Maddison Levi and Faith Nathan.
After bowing out of the Tokyo Olympics last year in the quarter-finals, which Caslick described as a “disappointment”, Australia well and truly turned their form around during a “fun year.”
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“I think for us we’ve just had a really fun year. We’ve got a great group of girls, obviously with Maddie and Faith nominated but the whole squads been awesome all year,” Caslick said after winning her award.
“As a group we’ve really reflected on the past 15-months from (the) Tokyo Olympics and that disappointment and turned it around and had a great season.”
As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald in October, Caslick is reportedly considering a switch to 15s ahead of the 2025 Rugby World Cup.
The Wallaroos were impressive at the most recent World Cup in New Zealand, before losing to England in the quarter-finals.
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At one stage, Australia appeared to be on their way for one of the shocks of the tournament against New Zealand on the opening day, as they raced out to a 17-nil lead inside half-an-hour.
With the next World Cup only a few years away, Caslick said that she is hopeful about switching to the sports other format.
“Hopefully. Watching the World Cup’s been incredibly inspiring and watching the Wallaroos do so well and obviously they don’t have much support as what us Sevens girls do,” she said.
“Hopefully in the future we can hopefully help them out.”
Try-scoring talent Terry Kennedy also became the first Irish rugby player to take home the Men’s Sevens Player of the Year award, after a ground-breaking season for the men in green.
After qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, Ireland went on to place third in the World Cup in South Africa earlier this year.
“We’re a relatively new program, 2015. But the growth has been incredible over the years,” Kennedy said.
“Starting at the bottom in division C in Europe and getting up to Tokyo qualification last year and then third place in the World Cup in Cape Town in September.
“I think it’s incredible what we’ve done in the last few years and hopefully we can continue over the next few years.”
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
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