sport, local-sport

RUGBY SEVENS It may not have hit them yet but Mudgee High School students Bec Bailey and Claudia Shearman have become part of sporting history. The pair have been selected in the first NSW Schoolgirls Rugby Sevens squad to participate at the national championships on October 13. This is the first time a national schoolgirl competition will be played and in 2012, the event will be held at Southport School on the Gold Coast. Bailey and Shearman were selected not only for their skills but for showing initiative on the rugby field. Mudgee High teacher and schoolgirl rugby coach, Scott Hatch, said the two were leaders in the school’s own rugby side and thoroughly deserved their selection. “They’re both excited. This is Claudia’s first year playing rugby and she does have some fair rugby league pedigree in the family. Bec is a talent in all sports and has been playing rugby for three years now,” Hatch said. “Both girls have been given strict training programs to adhere to by the Australian Rugby Union [ARU] High Performance coaching staff and they have stated the girls are extremely talented and great prospects for the future.” The students were selected after 50 girls attended trials at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern recently. Shearman said she was happy to come this far in a short space of time. “Scott told me I would be playing five-eighth and to go out and play like Quade Cooper,” she said. The year 12 student said there was now a rivalry between her and brother Tom, who played rugby league with Melbourne Storm in the Toyota Cup this year and was selected to play for Victoria. “Tom hasn’t been selected for NSW so playing for Victoria doesn’t count,” she laughed. “I do follow league a lot more but I’ve enjoyed playing rugby. It’s definitely something different.” Bailey said rugby was up there with one of her favourite sports but had to put football first. All girls under 17 at the championships will be viewed for selection into the National Youth Women’s Sevens program. An Australian under 18s women’s sevens team will also be selected in mid-November to compete at the 2013 Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney. The championships are part of the ARU’s Pathway to Gold program which includes national camps at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, providing an opportunity to train alongside the men’s and women’s sevens teams. The ultimate outcome is to be selected in the national sevens teams at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-ukpsdtbFVCHVPwLeMXgLGW/10d88d4e-e2d0-424e-917e-2c95bd2da357.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg