News in brief: Czech Rep, Australia, Malta & S America

Czech player shines in New Zealand. Martin Charvát reports that former Czech sevens international Petra Křiklánová has been voted “player of the year” of New Zealand club Hutt Old Boys Marist. In addition has been selected for the Wellington Pride provincial team (alongside seveal Black Ferns), winning a silver medal in National Women Provincial Competition.

Petra started to play rugby as a 10 years old girl in the Academic Rugby Club Iuridica in Prague, Czech Republic. As a 17 year-old she took part in European Sevens Championship in France as a member of the Czech Team.

However she switched her second sport – softball and became a  member of the national team, which led her to New Zealand. Softball is a major sport in New Zealand as well and Petra moved there for one year to get some experience.

After the end of softball season she didn’t want to go back to Europe, so she remembered her earlier rugby career and in January 2015 she applied for membership of Hutt Old Boys Marist rugby club. It was her first experience with the fifteens rugby - she played only sevens in the Czech Republic. She was selected as lock, which fitted her perfectly.

"What are your plans, Petra?” she was asked. “I would like to play here one more season, I would like to be nominated to Wellington Pride again and I would like to win NWPC this time!.”

South America.Eight national teams will compete in the Olympic “test” sevens – the Aquece Rio Sevens tournament - at the Deodoro Stadium, in the west of Rio, in March (5th-6th). Although some distance from the more famous Olympic venues, the Deodoro Olympic Park will be the second busiest venue for the Games, with 11 sports taking place there, including equestrian events, shooting and white-water rafting as well as sevens rugby.

Eight teams will take part in the test event, including Brazil and Colombia (who have both qualified for the Games), Argentina and Venezuela (who will be playing in the repecharge in Dublin in June), continental “C” champions Peru, as well as Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.

Australia ready to defend their Coral Coast Sevens.Australia start their preparation for a busy 2016 with the Coral Coast Sevens in Fiji this weekend. A Chinese team will also take part in the eight-team tournament, with most of the other teams being Fijian. The Australian “Pearls” are the current champions, with Gemma Etheridge leading a team of largely the country’s up-and-coming young players: Mahalia Murphy, Georgina Friedrichs, Demi Hayes, Shanice Parker, Shenae Ciesiolka, Gemma Etheridge, Laura Waldie, Nita Maynard, Nicole Beck, Dominque Du Toit ,Jayme Fressard, and Taleena Simo.

Spain's sevens squadhas begun a three week camp ahead of the next round of the World Series in Sao Paulo. One new name appears in the squad - Anne Fernandez from Gaztedi - who made her fifteens debut in the Autumn.Squad:Lourdes Alameda; Teresa Bueso; Ángela Del Pan Moruno; Iera Echebarria; Amaia Erbina; Anne Fernandez; Berta García Alonso; Patricia García Rodríguez; Elizabet Martinez; Paula Medín López; Barbara Pla Vegué; Ana Vanesa Rial López; María Ribera; Irene Schiavon;

Maltamay have a small number of registered players (only sixty according to thelatest-published World Rugby data– or about 15% of all Maltese rugby players), but they have often punched well above their weight, with some good results recorded in the past against teams such as near-by Tunisia, one of the strongest Africa teams. This would in thanks to an active women’s three-team sevens league (Kavallieri, Falcons and Overseas), which continued last weekend, attracting detailed coverage in national newspaperMalta Today.