Dalton expecting physical battles in Amsterdam

Fri, May 22, 2015, 2:00 AM
AAP
by AAP

Qantas Australian Women's Sevens utility Chloe Dalton is anticipating that their Day One opponents in Amsterdam will take on her side up front.

Australia has been drawn with two of the more physical sides in the Women's Sevens World Series in Russia and England, along with China, in Pool B and the 21-year-old believes that they will bring their A-games to the NRCA Stadium.

"It's a tough pool," said Dalton, who has appeared in every tournament of her debut Sevens World Series season. "I think there'll be a lot of contact in the games against Russia and England in particular and that'll be a real challenge for us, particularly coming off the back of a win."

"However, we're going really well, we had a really good training session today [Thursday]. We were feeling much better in the second half of the week after recovering well from London."

After indifferent performances in Atlanta and Langford, Dalton sensed a different vibe in the camp.

"Last week in London felt really different. It felt like all the things we worked on post Canada and the USA came together. As a team, we bonded really well and as a squad we were just all on point.

On the artificial surface that the Amsterdam Sevens will be played on, Dalton said: "The astro turf is probably not my favourite to be honest though I've got some nice knee pads this time! But in terms of my kicking, it's actually quite good as it guarantees a consistent bounce."

Australia sit second in the 2014/15 Women's Sevens World Series and technically only need seven points to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics. Put in simple terms, progress to the Cup Quarter-Finals in Amsterdam will ensure the team can start booking their tickets to Rio in 15 months.

Fans can watch both days play LIVE via www.worldrugby.org/womens-sevens-series/. FOX SPORTS will once again broadcast Finals Day from 11.20pm AEST on Saturday 23 May through to 2.10am AEST on Sunday 24 May.

Qantas Australian Women’s Sevens fixtures in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22-23 May:

Australia v Russia, Pool B, 8.20pm, 22 May

Australia v China, Pool B, 11.04pm, 22 May

Australia v England, Pool B, 1.48am, 23 May

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