World Series prep hotting up in Oceania

Robinson, a commentator and presenter on Sky Sports in New Zealand, voiced the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens and IRB Women’s Sevens World Series, and will contribute regular posts this season for Scrumqueens.com on the women’s game in New Zealand and beyond.

Image: Ellia Green is one to watch this weekend

"In another example of women’s 7s continuing growth, this weekend the Coral Coast in Fiji Lawaqa Park will host six international teams - two of them involved in next weekend’s Dubai Sevens.

But more importantly if one of them wins, they get something unheard of in women’s rugby just a year or so ago, a nice little cash bonus!The Bayley’s Coral Coast Sevens has twelve teams competing for a total prize pool of $FJD 15,000, the winners take away $10,000 of it and the beautifully crafted Crest Na Iri Trophy.Australia are bringing an extremely strong team with seven of their stars from the Moscow’s World Cup. Other than the regulars, players to watch in the team include Ellia Green who debuted in Houston this year. The 20-year-old can run the 100m in 11.2, represented Australia at the World Junior Athletics Champs last year and also played rep basketball.A new name too is 19-year-old Rachel Crothers who debuted last month at the Asia Pacifics. The Queensland Open women’s beach sprint champ has recorded the fastest time in the squad over 40m.Fijiana meanwhile has decided to pool all of its top players into one team instead of the two it had originally entered. After beating New Zealand recently in the Oceania Tournament in Australia, they are very determined to go well in Dubai and increase the player base in Fiji. The Fijian rugby union has also recently, for the first time, put a group of the players in the rugby academy.The US have sent a developmental team under the name Serevi Selects and USA coach Ric Suggitt has sent a mixture of Eagle 7s regulars, like Christy Riggenberg and Irene Gardner, with a number of experienced 15-aside internationals including Meya Bizer and Megan Bonny.But what is really exciting is seeing how the first crossover athletes to be contracted to the Sevens programme go. They are Lorrie Clifford and Liz Sowers. Clifford played for the Western Oregon basketball team and Sowers USA football. Neither have much rugby experience.There are eight fulltime Sevens players contracted players all up in the Serevi Selects so they’ll be favourites, along with Australia, to make the final.Another interesting side is the Sunnybank team that has Kiwi Aimee Gilbert from the National champion Manawatu side. She travelled to the UK in July to compete in the women’s rugby league World Cup. Former Australian Volleyball player Tallisha Harden joins her; she’s also played for Australia in the recent Shanghai 7s as did Triathlete Kirby Sefo. There’s also a former Waikato netball rep in Evelyn Horomia and two of the Wallaroos World Cup training squad.You can understand then why Bayley’s Coral Coast Sevens organiser Nick Jordon is stoked with his women’s competition."We're delighted with the quality of the 12 women's teams, up from eight last year, and particularly that there are effectively four national teams - Aussie Pearls, Serevi Selects, Fiji and New Caledonia. We're expecting a close competition as the girls in all the teams have a point to prove ahead of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series.”Even though it’s a hop and a skip away there is no New Zealand.

The High Performance team in charge of where the New Zealand women’s sevens team play were invited but said they had no funding.The final day’s play is live on Channel FBC 2 so a total of eight games will be televised."POOLS FOR THE CREST NA IRI TROPHY, November 14-16, SigatokaPool G: Aussie Pearls, Tribe, Striders, New CaledoniaPool H: Fijiana, Marist Sea Hawks, Pacific Two Blues, Sydney Fiji RanadiPool J: Serevi Selects, Sunnybank, Lautoka, Outrigger