Aussie Sevens rugby women eye new goals

Australia's women's rugby sevens captain Sharni Williams sees a packed 2018 schedule as a chance to move the conversation on from Olympic gold two years ago.

Australia's Sharni Williams

Women's rugby 7s captain Sharni Williams says it's time to move on from Australia's Rio gold medal. (AAP)

Australian women's sevens captain Sharni Williams says it's time to start talking about something other than the side's 2016 Olympic gold medal.

The team fell off the pace last year after storming to victory in the sport's Olympic debut in Rio in a performance that put them on the map.

But Williams says that success is irrelevant to this team now and has pointed to this weekend's Sydney Sevens, April's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and a World Cup in the USA as opportunities to lay down a new marker.

"While winning gold was amazing, we've got girls here (in the team) that haven't experienced it so, if we speak about it the whole time, it's only going to affect them," Williams said.

"We did look back on what we had achieved, but now it's putting that behind us and growing what we have now.

"You've got to be a different team. You can't just sit there and expect the gold medal is going to get us through to the next Commonwealth Games or Olympics."

It's been so far so good for the side's reinvention this season, a resounding 34-0 defeat of the USA in Dubai's World Series opener in December evidence of their revival.

Australia will be strengthened further by the return of gold medal-winning speedster Ellia Green, nine months after a serious knee injury.

Australia play Spain, PNG and France on Friday at Allianz Stadium, with quarter-finals and semis on Saturday and the final to be played on Sunday.


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Source: AAP



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