Rio Olympics: Tim Walsh sees long journey for women’s sevens team

Rio might just be the start of a long journey for Australia’s women’s rugby sevens team.

The Australian women's sevens team after their World Series success. Picture: Adam Ward.

Australia’s women’s sevens rugby coach Tim Walsh expects the ­majority of his team will remain together after the Rio Olympics and will push on to see how far they can develop.

The Australian team, to be announced on July 14, will enter the Games as favourite to win the first Olympic women’s rugby gold medal, although Walsh expects all “the usual suspects” — New Zealand, Great Britain and Canada — will make it extremely difficult for them.

But although this side was purpose-built for the Olympics, combining players who had started out in a wide range of sports, he believes they have welded as a team and are just at the start of their journey as professional footballers.

“I do believe these girls, the majority of them, will be targeting back-to-back World Series and the 2020 Tokyo Games. I envisage most of them taking this as a ­career and moving on to the next Olympics.”

At present it is not a particularly lucrative career: the average ­female salary is around $55,000 and the maximum goes as high as $75,000 — including ARU salaries and funding from the Australian Sports Commission — compared with the average men’s sevens salaries of $90,000. The men, however, play twice as many tournaments, 10 compared to five, although the women will play an extra event on the World Series if their participation in the Sydney Sevens is confirmed.

One of the unknowns Walsh is hoping to find an answer to is what is the optimum age for a female sevens player. The sport is so new that the rest of the world is taking its lead from the current world champions, the Australians, whose average age has just ticked over to 22.

“But after six or seven years, they might find they have the experience and intelligence of a veteran yet still be only 25, 26, 27 (in Tokyo) and at their physical peak,” said Walsh. “Those questions are going to be answered in the next years.”

Walsh has signed on to be their coach at least until the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. “Obviously my next ambition is to win the Olympics but I have plans for the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and back-to-back World Series,” he said.

For the moment, however, Walsh has 20 of his 21-strong squad available for Olympic selection. Only Taleena Simon is unlikely to be considered, as she makes her way back from a shoulder reconstruction. Gemma Etheridge (ACL) and Emma Tonegato (ankle) are both recovering well from their injuries and will be available for Olympic selection.