“I’ll probably be looking at playing like 10, 15 or 12 – somewhere in the middle,” she said.
“I’m pretty I guess, like flexible. Wherever they see that I can fit in or where I can add value. It would just probably my like kicking game, obviously, that will to develop in the next year.”
Levi, who is a try-scoring machine and was recently named the best womens’s sevens player in the world, said she believed the skills would be transferrable to the 15s game.
“Wing being so similar will definitely help, it’ll work hand in hand and hopefully some of the expertise we have learned in sevens, we can come and transfer into 15s, like that aerial battle for the restarts will help in the kick receipts in the 15s game and so on,” Levi said.
The Aussie sevens switchers pose at Allianz Stadium.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Levi said the prospect of playing at the Rugby World Cup, and winning an Olympic gold medal in sevens, had ensured talk about her and sister Teagan playing a stint in the NRLW was never seriously considered.
“That opportunity to play as a dual international, and play at a World Cup, outweighed it,” Levi said.
“I wanna play sevens until I can’t pretty much and obviously and win an Olympic gold medal … and hopefully win a gold medal at the World Cup in the 15s game as well.”
Mindful of the potential damage to Wallaroos team culture, Yapp said she had made a concerted effort to be transparent with existing 15s players about the process of opening the doors for Australian sevens players to pursue World Cup selection.
“We’ve said along, it’s not guaranteed, they’ve got opportunities to show how they’ll perform,” Yapp said. “The 15s girls, we’ve got some players that are playing exceptionally well there as well. But what this does is give us more depth within our squad, which is exciting.
“We’re fortunate with the Wallaroos we’ve got some good wingers already [in Maya Stewart and Desi Miller], so that’s going to add to that, and then we are looking at a couple of them within the centres as well. Those are conversations we’re having.”
Yapp said Caslick would be a perfect utility player who can fill a number of roles in a backline, and said Levi had already shown an impressive willingness to learn about the transition to 15s.
Most of the nine sevens switchers will look play in the backs, but Nasser, who is the daughter of 1991 Rugby World Cup winning flanker Brendan and sister of Wallabies hooker Josh, said she’d be willing to follow in the family footsteps.
“I’m happy to play wherever put me wherever, and I’ll give it my best shot,” the Aussie sevens captain said.
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