WE DID IT! In my first column I finished with a quote about how great the feeling is when you achieve a goal with your team-mates and boy, it was amazing when we won in Dubai!

A little fun fact for you, New Zealand and Australia have each won in Dubai in alternating years since the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series began in 2012. With New Zealand winning in the even years and Australia in the odd years, so if the pattern were to continue we were destined to win.

Being the first round of the series, Dubai really sets the platform for the rest of the season, so it was important for us that we started well. We went in to our quarter-final against England knowing that the Kiwis had just gone down to USA in theirs which was a bit of an upset. However, that gave us an extra boost of adrenaline to not let the upsets continue in our game. Defeating England 29-12 in the quarters and Canada 25-7 in the semi-final we had some good combinations and trust in each other leading into the final against the USA.

The Americans continue to get better and better and we always knew that they would come out very physical, using their size advantage against us and then spread the ball to their speed out wide. I started on the bench and wow, just watching our girls defend for a good two minutes from the kick-off was tiring. I obviously would have preferred to be out on the field, but I was also happy encouraging them from the sideline at this point.

To be honest, though, I think that defending and holding them out for so long was the best thing that could have happened. The extra conditioning sessions were paying off, USA were beginning to tire a little and we were just getting started. The Aussie girls were relentless and did not let a try in. When we finally turned the ball over it was go time, scoring within 30 seconds of the turnover.

I was subbed onto the field with about 90 seconds to go in the first half and while we had started really well I was still a little bit sick with nerves running on. In saying this I don’t think I’ve even not felt nervously sick when running on the field representing Australia.

Pizza and ice cream

We continued a really strong performance, scoring four more tries and when the final siren went I, along with half the team, instantly got very emotional. As a whole squad this win was really important to us and having Vani Pelite and Emma Tonegato receive the Player of the Tournament and HSBC Player of the Final accolades respectfully was the cherry on top.

Now that the tournament was over all I could think of was what delicious food I was going to consume for dinner. Our post tourney meal is our treat meal and after Dubai I think we definitely earned it. Pizza! As soon as we got back to our hotel Vani and I ordered room service of pizza and ice cream. I think I may have got a little too excited and not realised that I ordered a whole tub of strawberries and cream ice cream, so despite our best efforts there was still half a tub of melted ice cream beside our beds when we woke up in the morning!

Ugh, waking up. When your brain knows you’ve finished a tournament it allows you to let your mental guard down and the pain of every bruise and scratch is accentuated. So, waking up in the morning was not pleasant at all, especially because we had to leave for our flight at 6am. The early start was made a bit more pleasant when the Emirates staff had organised a congratulations cake for us and a champagne breakfast in the lounge, although we all politely declined the champagne offer.

Two days to rest our bodies and then we were back in to it. The victory was short-lived, coming home to training for two weeks before going on Christmas break meant one thing, CONDITIONING. And boy did the coaches make the most of it.

Knowing we were able to go home over Christmas, though, was what got me through it. In any job you need to be able to have some time away with friends and family to be able to refresh. And that is no different for us, we’re all very much looking forward to going home to our families, letting our hair down and catching up with friends.

2018 awaits

However, we are in the middle of our season and therefore can’t completely switch off over the Christmas break, so we’ll still have to be training regularly to maintain our strength and fitness levels. Alicia Quirk has mentioned that her family even do a Quirk fitness circuit on Christmas morning! That is a strong 'no thank you' from me, I’ll pass on that one! My family tend to refer to Christmas as “Litmas” so there will be no exercise on Christmas Day for me.

In all seriousness, as elite athletes in season while it is important to have a bit of downtime and enjoy a few Christmas treats, we know how important it is to look after our bodies and how hard we have worked to get where we are. Plus knowing that we will definitely be getting our skin folds tested when we return adds a little bit of a fear of over indulging! No one likes the shame of ‘blowing out’ and having to do a whole lot of extras to work off that third plate of Christmas pudding ... guilty.

When we return on 2 January we will only have about four weeks before the HSBC Sydney Sevens – we can’t wait – and just three weeks before Japan come in to have some trial games. I’m hoping that this means there can’t be too much running when we come back, surely we’ll have to focus on game strategies right?

The new year also brings us closer to the return of Ellia Green after her ACL reconstruction in May, Alicia Quirk from her short-term ankle injury and Demi Hayes with her stress fracture in her foot. We will be gearing up for a big one.

2017 was a great year, but bring on an even bigger and better 2018!