Wallaby Mark Nawaqanitawase and highly-rated Brumbies winger Corey Toole headline a proficient Australia males’s squad for the upcoming Paris Olympics. The pair have been included within the 12-man group which was introduced alongside the ladies’s squad on Wednesday afternoon in Sydney.
Carrying inexperienced polos, which had the enduring Olympic rings on them, Nawaqanitawase and Toole joined the opposite 22 Australians set to characterize the nation on the world’s greatest sporting stage at Sydney’s slice of France, being the Hubert restaurant within the CBD.
Each the boys’s and girls’s squads sat in anticipation as they waited for his or her names to be learn out. For those who scanned your eyes throughout the room, it was nigh on not possible to look previous the hulking body of Nawaqanitawase and the acquainted face of Toole.
Nawaqanitawase, who has signed on with the Sydney Roosters and was just lately registered by the NRL to affix the Tricolours after the Video games, was one of many Wallabies’ greatest throughout final 12 months’s Rugby World Cup catastrophe. However 9 months on, the winger wasn’t included in Joe Schmidt’s plans.
When coach Schmidt unveiled the primary Australia 15s squad of the 12 months, there wasn’t a spot for the NRL-bound duo of ‘Marky Mark’ and Carter Gordon. That opened the door to sevens for the Wallaby and likewise Toole, who wasn’t chosen in order that the Brumbies speedster may take part on the Video games.
“We’re delighted to announce the 2024 Paris Olympic squad – a squad that we’re assured will characterize Australia with satisfaction and efficiency,” coach John Manenti mentioned.
“The group has over 330 World Sequence tournaments of expertise, 5 earlier Olympians and 7 debutants.
“We welcome Corey Toole and Mark Nawaqaniatwase again to the squad, each of whom have had seamless transitions and add an x-factor to our well-established combos.
“We had a extremely good two weeks in Fiji and Darwin just lately and that together with our strong season has the crew rather well ready for Paris.”
Toole was a part of the Australia squad which gained the nation’s first-ever SVNS Sequence total title on the finish of the 2021/22 season. Nawaqanitawase additionally has a background in rugby sevens after participating within the Commonwealth Video games squad in 2022.
The pair have been chosen together with captain Nick Malouf and veteran Henry Hutchison, who’re each set to compete at their third Video games. Coach Manenti has additionally rewarded gamers for kind and potential by choosing seven Olympic debutants.
Dietrich Roache, Hayden Sargeant, James Turner and Matt Gonzalez are among the many others who had been named after robust SVNS Sequence campaigns. Because it’s been reported, there wasn’t a spot for former Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper within the 12-man squad or as a travelling reserve.
“It’s been an enormous squad effort over the past three years to place us in a extremely good place to compete in Paris,” captain Nick Malouf defined.
“John and the teaching workers have put collectively a extremely thrilling group of high quality males who I’m certain will make Australians proud.
“Inside the group, we’ve acquired a pleasant mix of first, second, and third-time Olympians who’re all wanting ahead to competing onerous on the Video games. I’m so lucky to have the ability to lead this crew, and I can’t wait to get caught into it over in Paris.”
As for the ladies’s squad, the SVNS Sequence champions have named a settled group. Captain Charlotte Caslick will characterize Australia at her third Video games alongside veteran Sharni Smale who led the nation to a gold medal on the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Teagen Levi, Bridget Clark, Kaitlin Shave, Isabella Nasser and Bienne Terita have are all set for his or her first Video games. Teagan is the youthful sister of try-scoring machine Maddison Levi who can also be been chosen by coach Tim Walsh.
“We’ve got chosen a crew that is aware of how one can win at large occasions. Preparations have been detailed, difficult and pleasing,” Walsh mentioned.
“We’re a process-driven and performance-based crew and the journey over the previous three years is [the] cause we’re able to carry out.
“The crew is all the time first and we wish to thank Rugby Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee for making the Olympic dream a risk.”
Australia males’s rugby sevens squad
- Henry Hutchison
- Ben Dowling
- Corey Toole
- Dietrich Roache
- Mark Nawaqanitawase
- Henry Paterson
- Hayden Sargeant
- James Turner
- Matt Gonzalez
- Nick Malouf (c)
- Maurice Longbottom
- Nathan Lawson
Travelling reserves: Michael Icely and Josh Turner
Australia ladies’s rugby sevens squad
- Bienne Terita
- Sharni Smale
- Religion Nathan
- Dominique Du Toit
- Teagan Levi
- Sariah Paki
- Charlotte Caslick (c)
- Kaitlin Shave
- Tia Hinds
- Isabella Nasser
- Maddison Levi
- Bridget Clark
Travelling reserves: Kahli Henwood and Sidney Taylor
