Kildunne wants to get teeth into gold
CROSS-CODE star Ellie Kildunne says Great Britain ‘would be stupid not to strive for a gold medal' given the quality of their squad.
Team GB, currently eighth in the world sevens rankings, lost out to Canada and Fiji respectively in the bronze-medal matches in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
GB qualified for Paris in June last year by winning gold at the European Games in Krakow, beating hosts Poland 33-0 in the final, but they lost 19-5 to France last month in the Hamburg showpiece, the last tournament before the Olympics.
Harlequins winger Kildunne, voted player of the tournament when England's 15s sealed a third straight Six Nations Grand Slam earlier this year, is included in Team GB's 12-strong squad which is captained by Emma Uren.
Kildunne, the top try-scorer in the Six Nations with nine in five matches, is joined by fellow Red Roses star Meg Jones.
Ciaran Beattie's side face Ireland today in their opening pool match at the Stade de France and Kildunne's sights are fixed on a medal.
She said: “As long as we put ourselves in the best place possible, do what we know we can do and do our jobs really well, something special is going to happen. I'm looking forward to that moment because I can feel it. The screws are tightening. al athletes, of course we'll strive for gold.
“But as long as we put our best performance out there, and leave nothing out there, I'll be proud of every single person on the pitch.
“I'd like to come and have an interview after with a gold medal in my teeth, but that's what we're striving for, our absolute best.”
Kildunne, also top of the Six Nations' statistic charts for line breaks and metres carried with the ball, has made no secret of her desire to be considered the outstanding player of her era.
“I'm striving to be the best player in the world and to be part of a Team GB group that is so special and talented, I'm always going to have that incentive,” she added.
“Every team that I'm part of, whether that is Team GB, the Red Roses or Harlequins, they all just feed in little different things to my armour and I'm grateful for that.
“But without such a good team behind me, I wouldn't have the opportunity. This isn't an individual sport. No one is going to win an Olympic rugby sevens medal on their own.” Wales flyer Jasmine Joyce-Butchers, 28, is the sole player selected to have played at the last two Olympics and will make history as the first British rugby player to appear at three Games.
Joyce-Butchers is joined by fellow 2020 Olympians Lisa Thomson, Uren and Jones in the squad.
The rest are Olympic debutants with England's Amy Wilson Hardy, Ellie Boatman, Grace Crompton, Heather Cowell, Isla Norman-Bell, Jade Shekells, Lauren Torley and Kildunne. While the reserves are Abi Burton and Kayleigh Powell.
“As you might imagine, it was extremely difficult to name 14 at this stage, as there are so many excellent players who have performed on the World SVNS stage to secure qualification for these Olympics,” said head coach Beattie, below left.
“We want to be competitive in Paris and approach each match as one that can be won, with the ultimate aim of medalling, at the same time being respectful of the huge quality of other teams.”
Reigning Olympic champions New Zealand will be desperate to settle a score with Rio 2016 champions Australia, who won the World Series in June, beating hosts France in the final.
“Going to Paris is special anyway, but we'd be stupid not to strive for gold. We're professiontition will feature many legends of the game, beginning with Australia's skipper Charlotte Caslick. The evergreen playmaker, who helped the team to gold in 2016, combines superb vision in attack with relentless aggression in defence.
The Aussie's rivals will also need to keep an eye on Caslick's team-mate Maddison Levi, who has established herself as one of the most destructive finishers in the game with a record-breaking 69 tries this season.
Central to New Zealand's resurgence this season was the form of flying winger Michaela Blyde. The 2017 and 2018
World Player of the Year possesses the ability to unlock the toughest of defences with her speed, and has scored in excess of 200 tries on the World Sevens Series.
And Kildunne urges all sports fans to tune into the rugby sevens during the Games.
She added: “Once upon a time you'd have said we know exactly who's going to win but the fact we're in a situation where you actually don't know who's going to win is pretty cool.
“The game's growing, women's sport is growing and we're just in that golden era where we get to be a part of that. If you're going to watch any of the Olympic events, watch the rugby because there's going to be a lot of surprises and it will be so exciting.”
A full schedule of pool action is followed by the 9-12 placings on Monday before the quarter-finals in the evening.
Placings 5-8 take place on Tuesday lunchtime which act as a precursor to the semi-finals later in the afternoon, and the finals later in the evening with the gold medal match rounding off the tournament, taking place at 6.45pm.
