Rugby Sevens universities comp wants athletes from all sports involved

Australia's Evania Pelite shows her speed at the recent World Series event in Japan.

RUGBY Sevens is raising the stakes in women’s sport with the universities competition, that kicks off in August, given a directive to find the best talent it can from anywhere.

Clubs are starting trials and Australia coach Tim Walsh has been working with each of them and hopes any female athlete, from any sport, who has speed and a point of difference in their skill set, will come trial to be part of the competition.

“The more professional sports there are for women the better and when players do want to play rugby then they have that foundation around being a professional athlete,” Walsh said.

“Not many programs are fulltime __like the women’s (sevens) program is and if there are players that aspire to go to the Olympics or represent their country at a World Series or a Comm Games, if that is appealing to you, then we’d love to see you play and what you have to offer.

Emilee Cherry tries to put some space between her and an opponent in the quarter final of the Japan event.Source:Getty Images

“Speed is a critical part of sevens and you have to be a jack of all trades and a master of some. There are benchmark speeds that if you can’t get to then you’re really not going to make it as an Australian sevens player.

“(We want) players who have a real point of difference. It could be electrifyingly quick or an amazing skill set around the catch pass or you can step. Amazing agility or just power, players who can run through people.”

Eight universities (Canberra, Adelaide, Tasmania, New England, Macquarie, Bond, Queensland and Griffith) will compete in the inaugural competition that starts on August 25 at Launceston.

Coaches will be looking for speedy women who have a standout skill at the trials for university teams.Source:Getty Images

The four-round competition will have members of the elite program playing across all clubs with a goal of growing the player pool available for contracting as Australia strives to stay among the world’s best.

“We started four years ago as a fulltime program to ensure those athletes made the transition from touch, basketball, track and each year they’ve progressed to another level to now being elite players with a gold medal around their neck,” Walsh said.

“But they still have a huge amount of potential. That gulf has started to really widen and those ‘next steps in place’ is what this unis competition will be.”

2017 Aon Women’s Uni 7s Series

Round 1: University of Tasmania Stadium, Launceston, 25-26 August

Round 2: Macquarie University fields, Sydney, 9-10 September

Round 3: University of Queensland fields, Brisbane, 16-17 September

Round 4: Bond University fields, Gold Coast, 29-30 September

Originally published as Sevens want the best, from anywhere