DARCIE Morrison scored herself a runner-up finish at the recent Central Coast 7s tournament playing alongside Australia’s latest golden girls.
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The CSU Bathurst student, and Forbes native, played as part of the national development squad and got the chance to call several of Australia’s Rio Olympic gold medal winners her teammates.
Making the experience all the greater for Morrison at the tournament was the fact that she scored two tries in the grand final, and she could at least take comfort knowing that the gold medal went to the other Australian side taking part.
The Central Coast competition, regarded as Australia’s premier sevens event, featured teams from New Zealand, Fiji and Japan.
Morrison’s Aussie Pearls Gold side ended up losing to the Pearls Green outfit 40-19 in the decider.
The CSU player scored the opening try of the match when she found some space to work with down the right wing.
Following a tough middle period of the match for the Gold team, Morrison earned her side a consolation try in the dying stages of the second half, in similar fashion to her earlier try but this time on the left wing.
The opportunity to play alongside several of Australia’s latest Olympic champions was something for Morrison to savour.
“It such a good experience to play alongside them. I was playing alongside Shannon Parry, who’s the Australian captain, Charlotte Caslick, many people now know her, and Chloe Dalton,” she said.
“They’re all gold medallists. It was amazing.”
Morrison said her side felt like a grand final-capable outfit early on.
“We got out there, played our first game and we felt like everything was clicking. Communication was really good and we knew we could get to the final,” she said.
“We saw the other [Australian] team was going strong so we had a feeling it was going to end with two of us in the final.”
Morrison has made a quick rise through the ranks of the national sevens development program having only taken up the sport 18 months ago.
With such a rapid climb up the system could Morrison have an Olympic gold of her own in four years time?
“That’s the ultimate goal but I’m a long way from that, and I’m probably a long way from a contract in general. I definitely want to get there. I’ve got four years so we’ll see how I go,” she said.
“I've been with NSW seven for two seasons and they’ve really helped developed me as a player. Then getting in and listening to [Australian coach] Tim Walsh talk is amazing. He knows his stuff.”
