World SVNS Series: Australia stars Charlotte Caslick and Faith Nathaneager to win first home series since 2018

It has been seven years since the Australian women’s rugby sevens team triumphed in the home leg of a World Rugby SVNS Series — and stars Charlotte Caslick and Faith Nathan are determined to end the drought this weekend. For all the dominance the Australians have enjoyed over that stretch, victories in a home event have eluded them since 2018, and last year’s heartbreaking loss to Ireland in the Perth final still stings. While Australia’s approach in Perth is partly geared towards long-term success, such as a first-place finish come the end of the season and defending their gold medal at the season-ending grand final in Los Angeles, there is no doubt a win in Perth would mean the world to them. “We haven’t won a home tournament for a fair while now, so we definitely have our eyes on winning,” Caslick said. “We want to win every tournament we play, but it definitely is important for us to try and perform well at home — we don’t get many opportunities to do so, so we do want to play our best, have fun, and hopefully that ends in a good result. “Because we play overseas a lot, I know a lot of our friends and family have come over.” Nathan said last year’s defeat to the Irish in the final only slightly weighed on their mind. “It’s always special playing at home in front of family and friends and stuff like that. “Our last year’s loss at home in front of our fans was very heartbreaking, but our motto is just move on to the next round, focus on the next team, and hopefully we go on from there.” While Australia’s bronze medal play-off defeat at last year’s Paris Olympics still burns for some, Caslick said the team could not afford to focus on it too much given how quickly the sevens series moved. “The group we have now is very different to the team in Paris, but hopefully we learn a lot throughout that process and there are things you can take away to make us better people and players, but we don’t really focus on it too much,” she said. “We’ve all moved on and there’s a lot of fresh faces in the team that weren’t even around in Paris, so getting them as much game time and opportunities out there is also equally as important as the older girls. Caslick in particular has a busy year ahead and will balance her sevens commitments around a Super Rugby Women’s debut with Queensland, with an eye on hopefully representing the Wallaroos at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England. While she expects she will likely move into a 10 or 15 role in union, Caslick said and her fellow sevens teammates making the move across needed to earn their spot in the team. “We have trained with them for a week, and then we’ll go back after Vancouver, but we have to also work around the girls that have already there training hard,” she said. “The opportunity that we have in front of us, and not just for ourselves personally, but for rugby in Australia, it’s huge for us to be able to go into a market like the UK and play at a Rugby World Cup. “To be out playing in front of those crowds and the people there and hopefully grow the game back here in Australia is really important, we’re really looking forward to playing Super W and then hopefully having the chance to make the Wallaroos squad.”