Securing a place in Australia's women's sevens squad for the Tokyo Olympics is the focus this weekend for the reigning gold medallists, as they prepare for a first international competition since the pandemic began.
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Head coach John Manenti's side face the Fijian, New Zealand and Barbarians teams at the Oceania Sevens tournament in Townsville, the first overseas hit-out for many since COVID-19 ceased the international sevens circuit.
"It''s an excellent opportunity for us to see where we're at, probably fine tune a few things around being put under pressure and real stress, rather than playing teams that you might win comfortably against," Manenti said on Monday.
"It's also the last opportunity for a few girls to put their hand up and cement positions, we're obviously reasonably close at this stage but you know there's a few girls we've given this last time to prove their case.
"This tournament is going to be a great indicator to us on how close we can get."
Since the Australian women claimed gold in 2016, the landscape of international competition has shifted drastically.
"The whole scheme of women's rugby since Rio has gone through the roof, back then we were one of the only centralised professional teams, and now there's eight or nine teams on the circuit that are fully professional," he said.
"Back at the last Olympics it was probably three teams in the race.
"People will know that we're the gold medallists but I think it's probably less relevant than a normal cycle being five years ago."
One notable inclusion for this week's tournament is Emma Tonegato, who will play for the first time in 12 months.
Tonegato is one of seven players from the successful 2016 Olympics squad and says she's thankful to be around the team following shoulder surgery earlier this year.
"It's really nice to be back - obviously haven't missed too much international rugby with the whole COVID situation but it's awesome to be back on tour and back with the team," she said.
"This tournament is extremely important not just for me, but the team as a whole to get a last tournament and preparation for Tokyo.
"I think all 12 spots still available for Tokyo and the Barbarians (with Australian representatives) have a really great opportunity to come out and show Johnny our coach what they've got."
Australian Associated Press
