Golden girls shine bright after Wallabies’ ‘disappointing’ World Cup

The Wallabies’ disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign will never be forgotten. Having failed to make it past the pool stage for the first time, the Aussies were caught on the wrong side of history in France.

With the Australian rugby team returning to the Dubai and Cape Town SVNS this month, a handful of golden girls are providing “a little bit of light” at the end of an otherwise bleak tunnel.

The ladies in gold, led by try-scoring machine Maddison Levi and captain Charlotte Caslick, have recovered from a lackluster 2022–23 season to win the first two legs of the new competition.

In six group matches at The Sevens Stadium and the Cape Town Stadium, Australia only gave up one try, yet both times, their dominance continued into the second day.

The 41-game unbeaten streak of the reigning world champions New Zealand was halted in the Dubai final, and the Australians followed that up with a 29-26 victory over France one week later.

The SVNS teams are carrying the flag for Australian rugby during a challenging time for the game in its home country, with the men’s team also qualifying for the final in Cape Town.

Captain Charlotte Caslick told reporters in Cape Town, “Our Wallabies had a pretty disappointing Rugby World Cup campaign and rugby has been doing it pretty tough back home.”

“This is hopefully a little bit of light for rugby fans back in Australia and hopefully they come out in Perth to support us.”

The Aussies’ 2023/24 season started eerily similar to their previous campaign. Last time out, the women in gold kicked off their quest for SVNS world glory with a cup final triumph in Dubai.

But that’s as good as things got. It was all New Zealand from there as the Black Ferns Sevens took out the Cape Town final and another five events on their way to World Series glory.

While a new season offers the opportunity to not quite right the wrongs from the year before, but rather to channel the lessons that the Aussies learnt – it was time for the team to put their growth into into practice.

With Demi Hayes told RugbyPass that they “played nearly a whole World Series” during a protracted preseason, the Australians have elevated their performance in anticipation of an Olympic year.

“We discussed back-to-backs a lot, and we’ve never won a World Series in Cape Town,” Caslick remarked.

We’ve always talked about winning here because we love to play here, and I’m incredibly pleased of the girls for doing it.

“We made it pretty hard on ourselves but it’s probably one of our best wins ever.

“Just the courage the girls have to keep fighting for each other is something you can’t coach, it’s innate in them and they’ve got a lot of ticker in them these girls.

“I’m super proud of them.”

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