Australia’s rugby sevens couple Lewis Holland and Charlotte Caslick target double gold haul in Rio

LEWIS Holland and Charlotte Caslick, Australia’s rugby sevens power couple, have their eyes on the top prize after both being handed their boarding passes for the Rio Olympic Games.

Charlotte Caslick and Lewis Holland are a couple and have both been selected for the Australian Women's and Men's Olympic Rugby 7's teams respectively.

LEWIS Holland and Charlotte Caslick didn’t need to find the words to describe a first Olympic selection to their significant other.

The other already knew.

Holland and Caslick are a couple and after being selected for the Australians mens and womens sevens teams respectively, both were given oversized boarding passes for Rio on Thursday in Sydney.

What separates this rugby romance from most other sporting power couples is that Holland and Caslick, based on the last year, are the best male and female sevens players in Australia and they’ll both be critical to the chances of bringing home gold medals in rugby’s first Olympics since 1924.

“I guess we have our teammates, who are our closest mates, but it is a nice thing to be able to share it with your partner as well,” Holland said.

Charlotte Caslick and Lewis Holland have both been selected for Rio

“It is great that we can experience that together, and hopefully come away with a couple of medals.”

After meeting at Australia’s sevens headquarters in Narrabeen a few years ago, Holland and Caslick now live together on the northern beaches. Sevens talk at the dinner table is usually prohibited.

“We do try to keep it separate, otherwise rugby would take over our whole lives,” Caslick, 21, said.

Caslick and 23-year-old Holland will be living near each other at the Olympic village in Rio, but not with each other. They don’t have ground rules for spending time together, most because they don’t expect to see each other much.

“I think we are on the same floor but usually our training times collide, and it is good that Charlotte is playing on the first day,” Holland said.

“Hopefully I will be able to get out there and watch her play and then share and embrace the Olympic village experience together.”

No other relationships have sprung up — yet — but the mens and womens sevens program are a tight unit, who train in proximity.

“Both the programs push each other and we have made each other better with our results. We have definitely both benefited from being such close programs,” Caslick said.

Holland added the Australian sevens environment had grown into “a bit of a family”.

So in the interests of avoiding family squabbles, only a pair of golds will do?

“Yeah, definitely,” Caslick said. “And I think it is definitely possible, as well.”

Originally published as Australia’s rugby sevens couple Lewis Holland and Charlotte Caslick target double gold haul in Rio