The best of the quotes from players and coaches on the opening day of the first ever Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens ...
"It is pretty exciting. We're really happy we have come away with the win. When we went into the game we just wanted to execute the basics and our game plan and I think it is a good stepping stone for things to come."
– Australian captain Cheryl Soon on being the first to captain a winning side in Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens history.
"It's huge, it is absolutely huge. Honestly you cannot underestimate just how important it has been in these girls' development. The opportunity and the decision by the IRB to incorporate the Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens into the men's must be commended because it is this goal now that really has given the ambition and the motivation to these players to give all the sacrifice, all the work rate and to step up their level of performances so much over the last 12 months, so it is so important."
- England coach Simon Amor on the importance of RWC Sevens to the development of the Women's Game.
"It was pretty much a baptism of fire. It's a good learning experience. We had a very tough game against New Zealand. Against South Africa we started off well, doing all the right things, but made a couple of silly mistakes that they capitalised on and scored. Against Italy we should have done a lot better than that but we'll move on to the next stage and see what happens."
– Uganda captain Helen Buteme sums up her first taste of RWC Sevens.
"It was amazing. It was totally what we wanted to do and show the fans what we can do. We think we got lucky with the draw in the pool, so we want to come out strong and obviously make it to the quarter finals and proceed from there."
– Canada captain Maria Gallo on her team’s 52-7 win over Thailand.
"It was good to get it out of the way. We haven't had a tournament since the qualifying tournament about six months ago so it was good to get a game under the belt. It has been a long time coming so just to get those nerves out of the way is a bit of a relief really."
– New Zealand captain Hannah Porter on their long-awaited RWC Sevens debut against Uganda.
"It was our objective to win all our games but we were really concentrating on getting that second position. To finish up in top spot is really pleasing for us."
– Spain captain Raquel Socias on winning all three matches to top Pool C.
“We have a huge amount of respect for the USA and we knew it would be a really tough game so we are really pleased with that performance.”
– England captain Sue Day on their opening 17-0 win over USA, a side they had needed extra time to beat in San Diego only three weeks ago.
"We are happy to be able to pull it off. I think the girls have been looking forward to this. They wanted to make sure they qualify for at least the knockout stages of the tournament. I think this (takes us) very close to it, depending on the outcome of the next game, but we're very pleased with how it has been going up until now."
– South Africa coach Denver Wannies reflects on his team’s efforts after winning the all-African affair with Uganda.
"We are quite arrogant on defence, we don't want anyone to cross the line, plus we have a 'body on the line' policy in the team."
– Linda Itunu on her New Zealand side not conceding a point during their three Pool D matches.
"We didn't have such a good game against Spain so we just knew we had to come out strongly for this game. We did and we really played our hearts out and it feels really good to come out on top and reach our goal coming into the tournament."
– Canada’s Ashley Patzer on beating Brazil to confirm their place in the Cup quarter finals.
"I am disappointed but in San Diego we came out against them in the same way. The score was very similar, we came out flat, and then in the final we came out as a whole new team with our defence and we got in their face. That was our game plan today but we just didn't execute it. It being our first game we came out a little soft and that is what killed us."
– USA captain Christy Ringgenberg on her team’s first match defeat to England.
"We came back from a bit of a disappointing loss to France and we came back flying. I think we are just building on every game so that's a positive for us because look out tomorrow - we will be flying."
– Confident Australia player Debby Hodgkinson on why the other teams should watch out for her side.
CLICK HERE TO SEE POOL STANDINGS>>
CLICK HERE TO SEE WOMEN'S STATISTICS>>
CLICK HERE TO SEE DAY TWO FIXTURES>>
**WATCH RWC SEVENS 2009 LIVE AND ON-DEMAND THROUGH WWW.RWCSEVENS.COM ! US$19.99 FOR A THREE-DAY PASS. SIGN UP NOW!.**
