Three years in the past at Tokyo Stadium, the Australian ladies’s sevens aspect had their hearts damaged in an Olympic quarter-final. Australia fell to an agonisingly slim 14-12 loss to Fiji which noticed them bow out of medal rivalry.
For a crew that had real aspirations of taking out Olympic gold on the postponed Tokyo Video games, that wasn’t how they’d envisioned their marketing campaign going. Gamers had been in tears after full-time as they got here to phrases with what had occurred.
Captain Charlotte Caslick informed reporters the next 12 months that the Aussies had “sucked” in Tokyo and so they didn’t “need to really feel like that once more.” That defeat changed into a motivator for the ladies in gold as they set their sights on Paris 2024.
Australia went on to win Commonwealth Video games gold in Birmingham, the Rugby Sevens World Cup in Cape City and total titles on the SVNS Collection in 2021/22 and 2023/24. They claimed the second of these SVNS crowns on a well-known day in Madrid final month.
However whereas these victories haven’t given this crew loads of confidence, it doesn’t take away the reminiscences of that quarter-final loss to Fiji. They’ll be determined to make amends over the subsequent couple of days in Saint-Denis.
“I assume it’s a part of sport, proper? It’s why everybody loves it – the highs and lows,” Charlotte Caslick mentioned on Stan Sport on the opening day of ladies’s sevens on the Paris Video games.
“We’ve achieved so much since then and we’ve undoubtedly moved on and we’re actually wanting ahead to this marketing campaign.
“We’ve obtained numerous women again house because of harm, and even shedding Kaitlan Shave earlier at the moment, we’ve overcome so much as a bunch. They’re a resilient bunch of women that may adapt to something and maintain shifting ahead.
“They’ve the character, I feel, to do very well this event and I feel that loss in Tokyo actually helped this group develop.”
Australia have shot out of the blocks with two dominant wins to start out their quest for Olympic gold at Stade de France. They obtained the celebration began with a 34-5 win over South Africa and a commanding 36-5 conquer Ellie Kildunne’s Nice Britain.
Maddison Levi was a transparent standout on the opening day with the 22-year-old working in seven tries throughout these two matches. Levi scored only a few phases into the crew’s first match of the Video games in opposition to the South Africans and went from there.
“We’ve had a extremely nice day. We’re actually proud, I feel, of how the women went,” Caslick mirrored.
“We needed to start out the marketing campaign robust and we’ve undoubtedly finished that and we’ll be shifting our focus into Eire tomorrow.”
Nevertheless it hasn’t all been clean crusing.
Australia can be with out SVNS Collection Rookie of the Yr Kaitlyn Shave who suffered a devastating harm on Sunday. Shave went down injured with out anybody close to her and it appears sure the speedster is out of the occasion.
Travelling reserve Kahli Henwood has been known as into the enjoying group for the primary time. That is Henwood’s debut event within the gold jersey of the Aussie sevens aspect and there’s no better stage to achieve that mark than on the Olympic Video games.
“We haven’t gotten to see her but however she’s clearly, I’m certain actually disillusioned and we’re all gutted for her. It’s heartbreaking for her to clearly finish her marketing campaign in that method.
“We’re gonna get round her.
“Clearly, Kahli Henwood obtained to make her debut at an Olympic Video games. There’s at all times one thing good that comes from some unhealthy information.”
Australia will look to finish an ideal three-from-three run in pool play once they tackle Eire at 10:30 pm on Monday. These two groups performed within the SVNS Perth Cup Remaining in January, with the Irish surprising the world to say that title.
