{"id":458108,"date":"2026-02-04T15:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458108\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:47:08","slug":"we-want-to-win-it-in-front-of-a-home-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458108\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We want to win it in front of a home crowd’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was not all that long ago Will Cartwright\u2019s career was heading in a different direction. This weekend he will play at his first home HSBC SVNS<\/a> Series leg in Perth.<\/p>\n

Along with his now-Australia<\/a> Men\u2019s Sevens teammate Ethan McFarland, the pair were completing their exams to qualify as electricians in 2024.<\/p>\n

Now they are two of four men\u2019s players to have made their debuts for Liam Barry\u2019s team on the Series this term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both sparkies back up in Brisbane, so this is different to, you know, crawling around roofs,\u201d Cartwright told svns.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLate 2024 I finished my last exam (to qualify as an electrician) and then got a call from (Queensland) Reds<\/a> to go into the academy. So quit then and basically gave the whole year to focus on rugby. I just thought, if I don\u2019t do it, I\u2019ll regret it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the dream. I\u2019m not too keen to get back on the tools in Queensland\u2019s 35 degrees heat. It\u2019s pretty easy motivation for me; I don\u2019t think you could find me complaining much about anything I\u2019m doing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another twist of fate saw Cartwright get into the Australia Sevens programme. Invited to take part in a training week hosted by team veteran Henry Hutchinson, the 22-year-old impressed and translated his form from Queensland grade competition superbly.<\/p>\n

He even played in a team with Australian sevens legend Maurice Longbottom and claimed one of the handful of contracts on offer.<\/p>\n

Three legs into his debut season, Cartwright and his teammates are placed fifth overall in the standings. Six points adrift of South Africa<\/a> and France, a home tournament could provide the opportunity for Australia to stand on the podium for the first time since Dubai. And for Cartwright, playing in Perth this weekend is tantamount to achieving a childhood fantasy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going to the Gold Coast sevens when I was younger, watching Charlotte Caslick<\/a> and a few other boys, like Henry Hutchison<\/a>, and I suppose it\u2019s a \u2018pinch-me\u2019 moment that I\u2019ll be on the field playing in front of the stands,\u201d Cartwright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we want to win it in front of a home crowd. That would be a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was not all that long ago Will Cartwright\u2019s career was heading in a different direction. This weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-458108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}