Post-Olympics is always an interesting time on World Rugby’s SVNS circuit. There is usually a shake-up with players and coaches. It becomes a bit of a reset, rebuild, transition period.
But this year it is not just a post-Olympics transition.
The women have a 15s Rugby World Cup in England. Looking at the teams for Perth it appears most of the countries appear to be prioritising the World Cup over their rugby sevens campaign.
Women’s sevens coach Tim Walsh recently said the Aussie team was going through some changes with a couple of retirements (Dom Du Toit and Sharni Smale) and a number of significant injuries (Madison Ashby, Kaitlan Shave, Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea and Sidney Taylor).
Maddison Levi (by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
A number of the players are going to have a crack at 15s via the Reds, Tahs and Brumbies with a goal of making the Wallaroos. It appears they may be able to fit in two Super Rugby Women games.
However it does appear Australia is not focusing on 15s to the same level as the other countries. It will be interesting to see how the New Zealand sevens program operates. Last year there were indications that any sevens players who wanted to be eligible to be selected for the Black Ferns and World Cup had to play in Super Rugby Aupiki.
A quick look at the teams shows the impact of the Rugby World Cup focus. The only team that has stayed pretty much the same since the Olympics is New Zealand. Heading into Perth 11 Kiwi players were also in their Olympics squad. On the flip side Ireland this weekend have just three players who were in their Olympics squad.
Ireland is a bit of anomaly but it also shows their focus is firmly on the Rugby World Cup. In the first two tournaments in Dubai and Cape Town they had eight players who were from their Olympics squad. Currently the Celtic Challenge tournament is being played, the rugby competition organised between Scottish Rugby, Welsh Rugby Union and Irish Rugby Football Union.
As a consequence five of the Irish sevens players are playing in that.
The USA has just four players from their bronze medal winning Olympics team heading to Perth. In fact, talk about inexperience they have have seven players that have played just two SVNS Series tournaments. This same squad took out the silver medal at the Cape Town tournament. The USA have a lot of players, as usual, in the English Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) competition.
Similarly Canada have just five players from their Olympic silver medal winning team heading to Perth. Again most of their players play in the PWR also. France always have a focus on 15s and have just six players from their Olympics team.
Australia have six players and Great Britain seven players from their Olympic campaign. Two of GB’s gun players Jasmine Joyce (Wales) and Lisa Thomson (Scotland) are playing in the PWR and Celtic Challenge respectively.
So last year’s form is not necessarily a good indicator for this year’s SVNS Series. The exception to that is New Zealand who you can expect to be as dominant as always. With 11 players from their Olympics campaign that is not a surprise.
Australia will naturally be at the top even though they will have a number of new players finding their feet. But the most interesting to watch will be the USA, although a lot of new players they seem to be on the rise. Player to watch Nia Toliver and would add Jessica Lu too.
Looking at the series standings after two tournaments it seems to have settled into a top four (New Zealand, Australia, France and USA), middle four (Great Britain, Japan, Canada and Ireland) and bottom four (China, Brazil, Fiji and Spain).
They are all in action in Perth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and well worth having a watch.
