Stacey Flood To Captain Bond University During Stint Down Under
Ireland Women’s Sevens international Stacey Flood will captain Bond University in the opening round of the Aon Uni 7s competition at the University of Tasmania in Launceston this weekend.
Dubliner Stacey Flood, who is 21 and coming off the back of an excellent Sevens season with Ireland, is joined in the Bond University side by two of her Ireland team-mates, Claire Boles (19) and Katie Heffernan (20).
Boles and Heffernan made their World Rugby World Sevens Series debuts this season, while Flood made her debut in 2015. The young trio are spending part of their summer in Australia to continue their rugby development, while also having the opportunity to travel and explore what the country has to offer.
This is the first year of the Aon Uni 7s, which involves eight Universities from around Australia and will feature four tournaments, kicking off tomorrow and running until the end of September, during the World Series off-season.
Each team includes players from universities, as well as a number of marquee recruits, which not only includes Flood, Boles and Heffernan, but also members of the Australian Women’s Sevens squad who won Olympic gold at Rio 2016.
Bond University are coached by former England Sevens star Ben Gollings, and will also feature 2015/16 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year Charlotte Caslick. Gollings said that newly-appointed captain Flood ‘is proving a great addition and will definitely be one to watch’ during the Aon Uni 7s.
Ahead of the first round of games, Flood said: “It’s really great to have been given the opportunity by Bond to join up with them for this tournament. It’s the first time it’s taken place, so for Katie, Claire and myself, it’s really exciting.
“We’ve been down her a few weeks and we’ve been training with some really talented players, and learning from the likes of our coach at Bond, Ben Gollings, who achieved a huge amount during his playing career with England.
“We just love playing rugby, so to have the chance to keep playing, in what is our off-season at home, is great, especially at such a high level – we’re also enjoying exploring Australia during the time we’re not training, so that’s an added bonus.
“The fact that there’s lots of the Aussie Sevens international players involved across all the teams means that the games are going to be tough, and that’s what we want!”
The first round of the Aon Uni 7s kicks off in the early hours of Friday morning (Irish time) with Bond’s first game scheduled for 6am. For more information, click here for the tournament website. You can follow every match live and exclusive on www.rugby.com.au, rugby.com.au Facebook Live and @rugbycomau Twitter.