The University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney will be joining the University Sevens Series in 2018 with University of Western Australia set to follow in 2019.
The Series is the first domestic Australian sevens competition for women with teams made up of at least 50 percent student-athletes and the remaining competitors being comprised of non-students.
“The Series is part of a nationwide focus on creating elite sporting pathways for female student-athletes," UniSport Australia CEO Don Knapp.
After a successful inaugural year, Rugby Australia saw an opportunity to expand the competition.
#UQ has gone undefeated in winning the 1st Aon Uni 7s #Rugby Series title, following victory in final round at Bond https://t.co/yGA5klJclN pic.twitter.com/6ojp3yPtZf
— UQ News (@UQ_News) October 3, 2017
“The outcome is that we will have a stronger competition with more opportunities for players to compete across the ten teams, which has benefits for the competition as well as for our national women’s Sevens program," Rugby Australia General Manager High Performance, Ben Whitaker said.
Sydney and Melbourne join Bond University, Griffith University, University of New England, Macquarie University, University of Canberra, University of Adelaide, University of Tasmania and 2017 Champions the University of Queensland for the 2018 Series.
The Series will kick off later in the year but it's unclear how Australia’s professionals will be distributed among the expanded competition or if they will change teams.
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