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‘The ultimate athlete’: Former sprint champ set to debut at Dubai SVNS

Kaitlin Shave poses during an Australian Women's Rugby Sevens Portrait Session on November 20, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)

Looking to take out Cup final glory in the opening round of the new-look SVNS Series, the Australian women’s sevens team are set to unleash a former high school sprint star in Dubai this weekend.

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Kaitlin Shave will wear the No. 8 jersey at The Sevens Stadium on Saturday and Sunday after being named to debut as part of a star-studded Australia squad.

Shave was the standout during the AON Next Gen Sevens earlier this year, with the Queenslander crossing for 19 tries in just 12 appearances – clearly, the 22-year-old was destined for more.

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With co-captain Demi Hayes and veteran Sharni Williams missing out on last season’s leg in Vancouver with injuries, it seemed that Shave would debut on the Series.

But the speedster was made to wait a bit longer.

With the new-look SVNS Series upon the rugby world, Aussie Madison Ashby – who was named as one of our seven players to watch this season – hyped up Shave’s limitless potential in sevens.

“Australia produces some of the best wingers and she has unreal speed,” Ashby told Nine’s Wide World of Sports earlier this month. “I feel like this season she will get a good shot and mark her name on the World Series.

“Australia produces very good wingers, like Maddi Levi and Faith Nathan, and I think under their learning she will get into the ultimate athlete and learn a lot off them.”

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The rest of the squad for the Dubai SVNS is full of international superstars. Led by Olympic gold medallist Charlotte Caslick, the Aussies are coming for it all in 2023/24.

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Record-breaking try-scorer Maddison Levi will look to continue her rapid rise after a historic season last time around, and she’ll be joined by sister Teagan Levi in the playing group.

Rising stars Faith Nathan and Bienne Terita are another two players to watch as Australia looks to claim their first series title since Dubai last year.

“The program has spent the best part of preseason training and playing around the world. The objective being to play more rugby, increase player and team rugby IQ, resilience, positional depth and team combination,” coach Tim Walsh said in a statement.

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“Tom Carter has challenged and physically extended the team to an elite level, whilst consistently having 85% of the squad at full training capacity. We also have the full squad available for selection and welcome Kaitlin Shave who will make her long-awaited debut with the Australian team.

“We are very fortunate to have experienced players in Charlotte Caslick and Sharni Smale leading the team during such an intense Olympic season – both have navigated the challenges of such seasons, and they know what to expect. Sevens continues to go from strength to strength and, in an Olympic year, the launch of the invigorated new format will only enhance the entertainment spectacle and world-class product the HSBC World Sevens Series delivers.”

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H
Hellhound 41 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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