Australian women’s sevens keeping one eye on Tokyo 2020 Olympics
THEY’RE back on top but Australia’s women’s sevens team’s new standing will face it’s first test at next month’s World Cup.
Women's sport
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THEY’RE back on top but Australia’s women’s sevens team’s new standing will face it’s first test at next month’s World Cup.
Consistency paid off for newly crowned world champions Australia, who finished no worse than third in any world series leg to win by two points from New Zealand.
That is despite the defending champions winning the last three tournaments, culminating in a comfortable 33-7 defeat of Australia in the Paris finale at the weekend.
The 2016 Olympic and world series champions won’t have long to celebrate, however, with next month’s San Francisco World Cup still to play.
Australian standout Charlotte Caslick has an even wider focus though, saying the squad’s overall development had put them in a good place for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“We got so much experience out of that game … something that you don’t get from sitting on the bench, so that’ll be invaluable moving forward for our squad,” she said.
“We can really pride ourselves on the consistency we’ve had this year, we lost a few big names throughout the season, had a coaching change but the girls all stuck strong.”
Co-captain Caslick was among the Paris tournament’s best while Emma Tonegato and Evania Pelite were both selected in the 2018 Dream Team.
Australia’s men clung on to fourth overall — behind winners South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand — in what coach Tim Walsh admitted was a disappointing finish.
The Aussies, who won in Sydney and were runners-up in Singapore, lost to Spain, Ireland and Argentina in a forgettable weekend in the French capital.
“When you lose you get to pick up more,” Walsh said of what he’d learnt. “It’ll be a very interesting six weeks to see what this team’s about and where improvements can be made (before the World Cup).
“You look at the last few years and I reckon we’ve lost a lot more (of the big moments) than we’ve won.”
The World Cup will be held at AT&T Park, the home of baseball’s San Francisco Giants, from July 20-22.