China can challenge rugby sevens giants New Zealand and Australia, Olympic winner says
Alicia Lucas hails progress of ‘structured and meticulous’ China and is excited by potential of ‘incredible athletes’
China’s rapidly improving women’s rugby sevens team can draw on the country’s 1.4 billion population to eventually catch the sport’s traditional powerhouses.
That is the prediction of one of the greats, Alicia Lucas, who was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning team at the 2016 Olympics.
The Chinese women reached a quarter-final in their debut HSBC SVNS Series campaign in this weekend’s Perth leg, after progressing to the same stage of last year’s Olympics in Paris.
Lucas said China were already making waves on the global circuit, following promotion from the Challenger Series. As a “non-traditional rugby nation”, however, she acknowledged the country’s “incredible athletes” needed time to “transition into rugby players”.
“The skill set isn’t like in Australia, New Zealand and England, where it’s ingrained during your upbringing,” Lucas, an HSBC global brand ambassador, told the Post. “Like the USA, they are a group of athletes who have come together to learn rugby.
“Funding and Olympic support are huge factors in building a programme and becoming full-time would help them compete. They have to catch up in terms of professionalism, but given their size and deep pockets, you would put your money on China to do that.”
