By Casey O'Connor
After being dogged by injury, Rugby Seven’s star Charlotte Caslick returned to her best form in the Dubai Sevens tournament at the weekend as the Australian women’s team dominated winning all five of their matches.
After the win Caslick this week told us, “It was good to win our first tournament since Sydney in January 2018, but it was also bittersweet, showing where we should have been in Tokyo. We beat the silver and bronze Medalists here.”
She went on to say there are bigger challenges ahead but believes there is also a lot of improvement and growth in this squad as they continue to develop their combinations.
Looking back on the game Charlotte said, “I think our big improvement at this tournament, was our improved off-loading game. “We were too passive in defence. Good teams like France and Fiji can punish that, so it is something we need to work on.”
Caslick was back to her dynamic best and was named Player of Final however she sees room for improvement and her assessment heralds a warning to other teams. The Australian team scored a total of 163 points and conceded only 39 tries in the tournament.
“We’ve been working really hard since Tokyo. We were really disappointed with our results there,” Caslick said.
The Australians took a new-look young side to Dubai and were well led by their senior players Demi Hayes and Caslick.
This weekend the Rugby Sevens HBSC SERIES goes to another level. After playing behind closed doors this past weekend and throughout Covid, Caslick said 100,000 people are expected through the gates for the next round of the HBSC Sevens in Dubai this weekend.
She said, “The atmosphere and support is amazing here. “Everyone back home can watch us free through the World Rugby streaming service on YouTube and Facebook”.
The girls play their first game against Spain, on Friday (Aust time) kicking off at 3.22pm.
It will be the final outing for the Sevens in 2021 before the HBSC Rugby Sevens caravan moves on to Malaga, Spain late in January but hopefully not before some down time at home with family, fiancée Lewis Holland and her cattle on their Stanthorpe property.
