What Wallabies great expects from Aussie women’s side at Dubai Sevens

Two-time Rugby World Cup-winning Wallaby Tim Horan expects the Australian women’s sevens side to blood a “new generation” of talent at the opening leg of the HSBC SVNS Series season. As is tradition on the international sevens circuit, the first event of the season is Dubai.

Australia have a history of dominance at Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium with the women in gold chasing a fifth consecutive Cup Final crown at the venue. They played New Zealand in the decider 12 months ago, with the Aussies ending their arch-rival’s incredible unbeaten run.

Maddison Levi was a standout for the Aussies during that tournament, and Tim Walsh’s side gave themselves another reason to celebrate a week later in Cape Town. They took out the title in the Western Cape, and later claimed the overall Series championship in Madrid.

As the defending champions, the Australians will have a target on their back as the 11 other sides battle it out in a bid to taste championship glory themselves. While the overall Series winner won’t be decided for a while, starting the season well in Dubai is crucial for every team.

The Aussies haven’t named their squad yet, but they will be without last season’s rookie phenomenon Kaitlin Shave who was injured at the Olympics. But Horan and former Wallaby Cameron Shepherd agree that this talent has depth on their side.

“It’s a new generation of the girls coming through,” Horan said on Stan Sports’ Rugby Heaven. “They were really disappointed this year at the Olympics where they finished fourth and we all expected them to potentially make the final against New Zealand and go for a gold or silver.

“New younger girls I think will be blended into that team now. Charlotte Caslick’s been around for a long time, the Levi sisters, but there’s some younger ones coming through.”

Shepherd added: “There’s a great amount of talent coming through our female system into the sevens… so much talent coming into the female systems, especially in the sevens. I think the next couple of years are going to be really exciting for that group of girls.”

The Australians are still hurting a bit from their unfortunate losses at the Paris Olympics in July. This writer has spoken about Charlotte Caslick and Faith Nathan about that campaign and how hard it’s been for the team to bounce back from that hurt in pre-season.

Following their triumph at the SVNS Series Grand Final, the women in gold were widely tipped to compete for gold with neighbours New Zealand. While the Kiwis ended up booking their spot in the gold medal match, team Australia weren’t able to make it that far.

Canada registered an almighty upset in the semi-finals as they relegated the Aussies to the bronze medal decider. The Canadians had beaten France in the quarters, and came close to beating New Zealand before claiming an Olympic silver medal.

As for Australia, they were in the box seat to secure their spot on the Olympic podium against the USA, but Alex ‘Spiff’ Sedrick ended up racing about 95 meters to score the match-levelling try. Sedrick then stepped up to kick the medalling-winning conversion.

But that’s all in the past now. As Nathan and Caslick said on Stan Sport, Dubai presents an opportunity for the Australian sevens women’s side to show the world once again why they are an early-season favourite to challenge for silverware.

“We love Dubai because it’s the first kick-off of the season. We’re ready to go, ready to show the world how we’ve been training,” Nathan explained. As Caslick added, “Dubai is a great place to start out tour and we always do really well there.”