Lauren Brown and Yasmin Meakes aren’t Charlotte Caslick or Sharni Williams, but the Aussie Sevens debutants don’t have to be, captain Shannon Parry says.
Brown and Meakes have been called up for their World Series debuts in this weekend’s Kitakyushu Sevens, while Page McGregor has also been added to the side, replacing Olympians Caslick, Williams and Ellia Green.
Though they’re intimidating names to follow, Parry said they just wanted to see the new faces to bring the form that had earned them selection in the first place.
“They’re three big names to lose,” she said.
“It’s not about replacing them, it’s about getting these girls and getting them amongst the team and letting them play how they play and how they’ve been selected in this team.
“It’s not about trying to be Charlotte Caslick it’s about lauren Brown and Yasmin Meakes coming into this team and playing how we know they can play back in Australia.
“They’re two fantastic young players coming through the ranks and they’ve earned stripes through the development program.
“They’ve both got diff aspects they bring to the team but they’re aspects we need for the team.”
The Aussies take on China, Spain and Ireland in their pool matches as they look to keep their perfect 2017-18 World Series run going.
“We don’t know a lot about China, (but) we’ve obviously seen them play in the HSBC qualifiers, the weekend before Commonwealth Games,”Parry said.
“It’s going to be a big challenge there - Ireland obviously going to bring their A-game and then you’ve obviously got spain and they’re two teams that didn’t play in the Commonwealth Games, so they’ll be charging and ready to go off the back of Sydney.
The Aussie Sevens kick off their campaign against China at 12:36pm AEST on Saturday.
Pool A
Saturday April 21 (all times AEST)
Australia vs China, 12:36pm
Australia vs Ireland, 3:20pm
Australia vs Spain, 6:04pm
