Sevens stars put on a sensational show at the 2023 Santos Festival of Rugby | PHOTOS

One of the standout highlights of this year’s Santos Festival of Rugby in Narrabri was round two of the AON Next Gen Sevens series, which saw some of the country’s best female sevens players descend on Dangar Park to compete.

The Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs were two of the three teams in action, and they competed alongside a Rising Stars side that included players from ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Also adding to the occasion was the inclusion of several Australian national sevens team players to the Queensland and NSW sides, which included the best player in the world.

Charlotte Caslick, who lined up for the Reds in Narrabri, is widely touted as the game’s best player. She claimed her third World Rugby sevens player-of-the-year award in November last year and co-captained her country to a historic triple crown after the Aussies beat New Zealand 24-22 in the Rugby Sevens World Cup final in Cape Town, having claimed Commonwealth Games and World Series gold earlier in the season.

The Australian team was the first to achieve that triple crown, female or male, so with other national players like Madison Ashby, Faith Nathan, Sariah Paki and Tia Hinds (NSW) and Teagan Levi, Lily Dick, Faythe Manera and Isabella Nasser (Queensland), the local crowd was promised some entertaining action.

The players certainly delivered on Friday and Saturday as they battled through the scorching Narrabri heat during six quality contests.

Caslick and her Queensland teammates dominated as they won all four of their games, while NSW finished the weekend with two victories.

Game one was a tight contest when the Reds met the Waratahs on Friday afternoon to kick off the festival’s on-field action at 1.20pm. Queensland won that match 21-17 and was forced to come from behind after NSW led 10-7 at the break.

The Reds lined up again in game two at 3pm and demolished the Rising Stars side 60-0 after they went into the half-time break leading 24-0.

The third and final match on Friday kicked off at 4.40pm, and it was NSW that reigned supreme in that contest as it converted a 31-0 half-time lead into a 43-0 victory.

Game four on Saturday afternoon kicked off just after 2pm and saw NSW challenge the Rising Stars again. The Rising Stars not only scored their first try of the weekend in that match, but they pushed the Waratahs all the way to full-time. The NSW side led 17-7 at the main break and eventually won the match 24-19.

The Reds won far more convincingly against the Rising Stars in game five, which began at 3.25pm. They scored win number three for the weekend when they downed their opposition 41-5 after leading 24-0 at half-time. Ella Carlisle brought the crowd to their feet when she scored a 60-metre runaway try for the Rising Stars after the full-time siren had sounded to end her team’s weekend on a high.

Game six between Queensland and NSW kicked off at 4.45pm to wrap up the sevens proceedings, and while it was just another regular round game, it had a grand final feel to it around Dangar Park as the two winning sides went head-to-head. The Queenslanders took a 14-7 lead into the break and then converted that into a 21-14 victory to finish the weekend with four wins from as many games.

The third round of the AON Next Gen Sevens series will be played at Daceyville this Saturday, and several players who competed at Dangar Park will pull on the Australian jerseys next month when the World Series returns in Vancouver.