Cassie’s rapid rugby rise

One year on from that phone call Cassie Staples is still impressing staff as she accelerates on and off the field.

Australian Women’s Sevens coach Tim Walsh didn’t make it easy for Staples to muscle her way in, laying down ground rules early and setting skills to master before she would even have a shot.

What she did blew him away.

“We got her in with her coach Justin Lang and had a chat and was told a few non negotiables about what we’re about. She went away and a month later, she said, yep, done all that,” Walsh said.

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“She came in and we did some testing. She did all that and was beating half the girls who were on full contract.

“We gave her a few more work-ons. She went away and came back again and she was taking huge steps forward on her own and with her coach.

“She didn’t have the strongest pass at all and after the month she came back and she was doing it at speed and looked incredibly comfortable.

“We have some girls in the program for two years who still weren’t able to hit it.

“She showed me how much she wanted it and then how there’s no substitute for just hard work. The way she applied herself and how quickly she did it, the eyes widened when we saw that.”

A netballer who was satisfied with what she’d achieved in the premier league, Staples was drawn to rugby by the buzz of Australia’s gold medal Olympic performance in Brazil and the boom the sport received as a result.

She started a program with trainer Lang, who uploaded her training video — among many others he posts — in the hope the right people might see it.

They had planned for four years for Staples to be reach the ultimate goal of being part of the Australian program. That things started happening almost immediately and to now be on the verge of a full contract is beyond anything she could have imagined.

“My trainer and I, it was in our four-year goal, but a couple of years at least to pick everything up and then just be sighted by the right people and do the right things,” she said. “It definitely wasn’t a year turnaround, that wasn’t what we expected.”

While Walsh admits she still “has a long way to go”, Staples continues to put in the work around the clock, learning terminology, mastering skills and building strength and fitness to be among the fastest in the squad.

And a gold medal — Commonwealth Games or Olympic — could be in her future.

“Everybody who’s on a contract or is in the process of being offered a contract are only people that we see as podium athletes in 2020,” Walsh said.

“That’s what I see for Cassie.”