Dubai: Australia don’t want to be put under any sort of pressure in defending their Olympic gold after their women’s team secured an emphatic 38-0 win over Fiji on the opening day of the Dubai Rugby Sevens on Thursday.
The Aussies scored five tries through as many players to take their all-time winning record against Fiji to 22-0 in this series to get off to one of their strongest of starts in this competition.
Skipper Sharni Williams, who got one of the tries, was not too overawed with such a strong showing from the team that clinched gold three years back when sevens rugby made its debut in Rio de Janeiro.
“Any win is a happy occasion, but I think what clinched it for us is our defence,” she said. “I think we can hold our head high. We just perform in every single game in the way we want to perform.”
“Everyone keeps talking about us being the winners of the first Olympic gold medal. There’s no sort of pressure on us trying to defend this as no one can take away the Rio achievement away from us. We were the first to win and we take that as a matter of great pride. We’ve had massive role models for us through the years and now I think it is time for the younger players to deliver while learning from the experiences.”
Australia will play Ireland and Spain on Friday in their remaining two Pool B matches. “The next two days will be a different format no doubt. We’ve won today and all we need is plenty of rest and recover from this one,” the skipper noted.
“Another two games tomorrow and then the last three on the final day. We take it one at a time.”
