The Australian Sevens boys and girls teams representing the country at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa have earned a gold and silver medal. The girls team were in scintillating form as they added to their Youth Olympics title from 14 months ago to clinically dispose of Canada 36-5 while the boys lost to South Africa 31-20 in their gold medal match.
Of the Girls performance Coach Dale Roberson commented “I’m very proud of the girls and I’m very happy that we achieved what we set out to do. We’ve been asking for a full-game effort, and I think we delivered that on the last game in the final which was pleasing from a coaching perspective. One of our goals was to maintain possession of the ball, make them work hard and hopefully tire them out.”
“Being named flag bearer for the team, named captain, and then winning a gold medal – it just hasn’t sunk in yet. I’ll definitely remember this week for the rest of my life. It’s been a fantastic event and brilliant to be with the other athletes and see how they prepare.” Laura Waldie said. Of the Boys performance Coach Hugh Carpenter commented “It was a great game of footy but we probably didn’t play at our best in that first half – one or two things didn’t go our way but you have to cop that on the chin. You’ve got to start well in a game of Sevens, especially against a side like South Africa but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Josh [Coward] was outstanding when he came on and really turned it for us in the second half. It wasn’t to be today but you only have to look at these boys play to know the future of Australian Rugby is very bright.”