Five reasons why the Aussie women’s rugby seven team won Rio Olympic gold

FOUR years ago the team didn’t exist. Now they’re Olympic gold medallists. How our Aussie womens sevens team became an international force.

Australia has won gold in the women’s rugby sevens.

FOUR years ago the team didn’t exist. Now they’re world series champions and Olympic gold medallists.

The Australian women’s rugby sevens team have created history, beating New Zealand 24-17 in the gold medal match at the Rio Olympics.

Aussies make history with rugby sevens gold

Here’s five reasons why they became an international force:

1. Mixed talents

The Australian Olympic side are a collection of athletes who were brought together around four years ago from a range of different sports. After a combination of open trials and targeted recruiting, a big group of touch footballers joined the team (including stars Charlotte Caslick, Emilee Cherry and Alicia Quirk), a former WNBL basketballer (Chloe Dalton), a former Aussie junior sprinter (Ellia Green) and a ex-Jillaroo league player (Emma Tonegato). Thrown in with established rugby players Sharni Williams, Shannon Parry and Nicole Beck, the team was assembled and many had to be taught to tackle. They swiftly gelled and became a force.

2. Fulltime professionals

The Aussie women’s sevens team are one of the few female Australian sporting sides who are paid annual salaries and train fulltime. After an ARU decision to centralise in 2014, a 20-strong squad are on contract and train alongside the Australian mens team and the Manly Sea Eagles at Narrabeen in Sydney. They have a fulltime staff of seven, with coaches, manager, strength and conditioning staff and a medical team.

The Aussie women have a full trophy cabinet.

3. Skilful, fast and “rough”

Olympic status meant non-traditional rugby countries also poured money into new womens team but they didn’t have Australia’s point of advantage: backyard footy. The Aussie girls had mostly grown up throwing a footy around with their friends and family and taken up touch thereafter. Those natural ball skills are superior to most of their bigger, but robotic, rivals on the world tour. Width in the Aussie game and pace out wide burns most opponents.

But Rugby is a contact sport, and the Australian side gets physically tested every game. They’ve forged a tough hide, so much so their motto for the Olympics was “ROAR — Respect, Olympic dream, Accountability and Rough Bitches”.

Rio Day 3: Aussies at the 2016 Olympics

VIEW GALLERY

4. Full trophy room: World series and Youth Olympic champs

Olympic medals go alongside a burgeoning collection of prizes for Australia’s womens sevens program. The Australian side were crowned world series champions for the first time in 2015-16 after a dominant season, and the Aussie side won the Youth Olympics sevens gold medals in 2014. The future looks bright and in 2018 womens sevens will be included in the Commonwealth Games for the first time.

5. Experienced bosses

The young Australian squad have been mentored through their Olympic campaign by former Aussie sevens player Tim Walsh; a left-field thinker who uses a wide array of mental tricks to develop a winning team. He once took the squad to a cold room in a northern beaches butchers, closed the door and then lit a candle. He gave a stirring speech about always having the competitive flame within, but staying ice-cold on the outside.

Former Wallabies five-eighth Scott Bowen is the side’s long-time manager as well, and his knowledge about the pressure of international rugby has also been quietly dispensed.