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Sydney Sevens 2017: Ellia Green and Evania Pelite return for Olympic champions
Australia's women's rugby sevens players are not letting the weight of expectation get to them following Rio gold.
Olympic champions Ellia Green and Evania Pelite will rejoin the side for next week's Sydney rugby sevens tournament.
Flying high: Ellia Green scores for the Pearls at the Rio Olympics.Credit: Getty Images
The duo did not travel to Dubai for the first leg of the 2017 World Series last month, where the side finished runners-up to New Zealand.
But the tournament at Allianz Stadium from February 3-5 is Australia's homecoming after winning the gold medal in Rio last year.
"It's a lot of pressure, but it's not something we're talking about on a daily basis," Green said after training on Wednesday.
"We've ticked off that box and we have bigger and better things to come."
Coach Tim Walsh said although the speedster had recovered well from a shoulder reconstruction after the Games, Green was not back to full strength.
"She hasn't been about to do a continuous cycle of weights, so she's been slowly building back up to it," Walsh said. "She's been back a couple of weeks early so she can get some really good contact and physical training under her belt."
The squad trained opposite the men's sevens team, as they look to hone their defence.
"If we can play well and defend well against the boys, we can play well against any team," Green said. "And after Dubai it was definitely something that we really needed to focus on."
Fellow Olympian Emma Tonegato will miss out with an elbow injury.
The 12-strong squad has eight Olympic gold medal winners, including co-captains Shannon Parry and Sharni Williams, plus world women's sevens player of 2016 Charlotte Caslick.
Sydney is one of three events in the World Series at which men's and women's tournaments run concurrently, and Walsh wants to see this become the norm.
"Hopefully it can expand into other countries and there can be a joint World Series – men and women – all around the world," he said.
Australia will meet Brazil, Ireland and Fiji in group stages on February 3.
Australian women's sevens squad: Shannon Parry (co-captain), Sharni Williams (co-captain), Tiana Penitani, Chloe Dalton, Evania Pelite, Georgina Friedrichs, Charlotte Caslick, Alicia Quirk, Emma Sykes, Emilee Cherry, Ellia Green, Mahalia Murphy.
AAP