Abbi Spooner was forced into an impossible choice this week\u2026her biggest break in rugby sevens or a semi-final with her club.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old daughter of former Wallaby Nathan Spooner has elected to play for Queensland in Sunday\u2019s ISPS HANDA Next Gen 7s series in Sydney.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s all in to play the halfback role in the three games scheduled against the NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies at Forshaw Park.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll also have one ear on progress in Brisbane where her Easts club are in the knockout semi-final against Sunnybank in the StoreLocal Founders Cup at Sunnybank Rugby Club.<\/p>\n
Queensland’s Carys Dallinger sprints clear of the ACT Brumbies defence in the Next Gen 7s series stop on the Sunshine Coast. Photo: Brendan Hertel<\/p>\n
\u201cI was definitely a bit upset when I found out the semi was the same day as the sevens,\u201d Spooner admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve worked so hard at Easts all year but I trust the girls fully that there\u2019ll be a prelim final to play next weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the highest level of sevens I\u2019ve been selected for. It\u2019s a great opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying Next Gen 7s is the pathway to Australia A and Australia. It\u2019s definitely the pathway you want to be on when you aspire to play at the Olympics one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The up-and-comer is a smart ball-player and fearless in defence. She’s also taken on a few tips from dad this year with her switch from fullback to the No.10 role at Easts.<\/p>\n
Those who imagine sevens is less physically taxing than the 15-a-side game need to think again. Both have their different demands.<\/p>\n
Spooner was sidelined for four weeks earlier this season when she copped a compressed fracture of the cheekbone from a stray elbow in an Australia A sevens trial.<\/p>\n
She is excited to jump into a Queensland team which showed exciting patches of form in the first Next Gen 7s tournament on the Sunshine Coast earlier this month. She’ll feel at home beside Easts clubmates Carys Dallinger and Anna Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter months of training, it was nice for the girls to gel on the field and you can see the difference since in working on our improvements. We do have a young squad but lots of very good players for the future,\u201d Spooner said.<\/p>\n
Evie Sampson, a standout on the Sunshine Coast, has elected to play for Bond University in Sunday\u2019s major semi-final against Wests at Sunnybank Rugby Club.<\/p>\n
The Queensland side gets a boost with the return of skipper Sophie Duff, who missed the Sunshine Coast leg with illness.<\/p>\n
Emmisyn Wynyard (groin) and Kaelyn Passi (head knock) are out. Tahlia Evans and Matilda Richards come in.<\/p>\n
Queensland Reds<\/p>\n
Anna Park<\/p>\n
Ava Wereta<\/p>\n
Carys Dallinger<\/p>\n
Charli Nikola<\/p>\n
Tahlia Evans<\/p>\n
Abbi\u00a0Spooner<\/p>\n
Matilda Richards<\/p>\n
Kianna Maclean<\/p>\n
Madi Collins<\/p>\n
Madi Pomerenke<\/p>\n
Tahli Devine<\/p>\n
Taleah Ackland<\/p>\n
Sophie Duff (c)<\/p>\n
ISPS HANDA NEXT GEN 7s (ALL GAMES LIVE ON RUGBY.COM.AU)<\/p>\n
Round 2 –\u00a0Sunday – Forshaw Rugby Park, Sydney<\/p>\n
9.30am: Waratahs v Brumbies<\/p>\n
11.00am: Reds v Waratahs<\/p>\n
12.30pm: Brumbies v Reds<\/p>\n
2.00pm: Waratahs v Brumbies<\/p>\n
3.30pm: Reds v Waratahs<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abbi Spooner was forced into an impossible choice this week\u2026her biggest break in rugby sevens or a semi-final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85],"class_list":["post-72020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72020","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=72020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}