The University of Western Australia will field a team in the national Aon Women’s Uni 7s rugby competition next year.
The Aon Women’s Uni 7s Series is the first domestic Australian sevens competition for women, offering the nation’s rising talent the opportunity to train and play in a high performance environment to stake their claims for national selection.
The UWA team will include 17-year-old 7s star player and Australian Youth 7s representative Courtney Hodder and first-year UWA psychology student Tanei Daniels.
The semi-professional squad, which is due to start training this month, aims to have 12 professional rugby players and 12 UWA students and will be based at UWA Sports Park.
Nicole Serafini, Student Athlete Manager with UWA Sport, said the new team offered Western Australia’s female rugby players an opportunity to play rugby at an elite level.
"The team will join a pathway that has the potential to lead our athletes to Olympic Games selection. It is UWA’s first semi-professional team and our involvement will place the University on the world sporting map. It's a very exciting time to be an athlete at UWA," Ms Serafini said.
This year’s competition involved 10 universities including The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney, Macquarie University, The University of Queensland, Bond University, University of Canberra, University of New England, Griffith University, University of Tasmania and The University of Adelaide.
The Aon Women's Uni 7s is the first domestic sevens competition for women, offering the nation's rising talent the opportunity to train and play in a high performance environment to stake their claims for national selection. Sanctioned by UniSport Australia (UniSport), teams are made up of at least 50 per cent student-athletes with the remaining competitors being comprised of elite rugby players. As the pinnacle women's sevens competition in Australia, the entire national women's sevens squad will also partake in the series with each team being allocated two superstars from the national squad.
The program will run from March through to October and training will range from two to five times per week with games held nationally from August to October on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The program will include, skills technical play, athletic performance enhancements, player welfare support, physical therapy, nutritional advice, performance psychology and mental health support. The program is financially covered by UniSport, UWA and Rugby Australia to ensure there are no out of pocket expenses for any travel, uniforms and participation by athletes.
Nominate here
Note: Players may be told that they have not been selected after two trials. It is the players responsibility to communicate all absences. Players must be turning 17 years of age in 2019 to be eligible to complete.
Any questions about the trials can be sent to the High Performance Manager, Nicole Serafini at nicole.serafini@sport.uwa.edu.au
Squads Trials
When: March 11, 13, 18, 20, 25 and 27 (6-7:30pm)
Where: UWA Sports Park, Rugby Fields (off McGillivray road)
All players must nominate before attending trials.
