Five years ago, Australia stood atop the world becoming the first Olympic rugby sevens champions. Since then, they have been locked in a battle with arch-rivals New Zealand to claim dominance in the women’s game.
With a core group of players there from the beginning, half the Aussie’s Oceania squad were there in Rio five years ago.
The team is still led by Sharni Williams, who has played the most World Series matches of any Australian women, with the exception of 2016 Player of the Year, Charlotte Caslick, who has also played 191 times.
Fijian-born Ellia Green has not played as nearly as many matches, but is still Australia’s all-time World Series try scorer. In fact, there are only three other women worldwide who have scored more tries than her.
With all this experience and points, the Aussies have clinched the World Series title twice, last winning in 2018.
The man calling the shots during this period was Tim Walsh, who left the team after the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games to coach the men’s side.
Walsh was replaced by John Manenti, who is yet to match the successes of his predecessor, but has previously had great success in the longer form of the game, leading Eastwood to three Shute Shield titles.
Manenti has been able to blood some new talent to his core playing group, including Sariah Paki who became the youngest Australian World Series debutant when she was called up to play at the 2019 Sydney Sevens at age 17.
The team’s most recent title was in November 2019, when they defeated Fiji in the final of the Oceania Sevens. The Aussies have an excellent record against the Fijians, having only lost two matches to the island nation, both in the final of the past two Pacific Games.
The same cannot be said when matching up against the Kiwis. Since their extra time loss in the final of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Australia has only managed four wins (none in the World Series), with only one win from six in their Trans-Tasman series in May.
The Oceania Sevens will present an excellent opportunity for the defending champions to test their might in a tournament since January 2020.
"It's an excellent opportunity for us to see where we're at, probably fine tune a few things around being put under pressure and real stress, rather than playing teams that you might win comfortably against," coach John Manenti said.
"It's also the last opportunity for a few girls to put their hand up and cement positions, we're obviously reasonably close at this stage but you know there's a few girls we've given this last time to prove their case.
"This tournament is going to be a great indicator to us on how close we can get."
Despite a lot of runner-up finishes to New Zealand over the past few years, they are still one of the world’s best teams and will be going into Tokyo as one of the favourites. However, that status may change after this weekend… good or bad.
Squad:
Chloe Dalton, Sariah Paki, Sharni Williams (c), Charlotte Caslick, Vani Pelite, Emma Tonegato, Ellia Green, Demi Hayes, Shannon Parry, Cassie Staples, Madison Ashby, Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea, Faith Nathan
