An Australian men's sevens side left "decimated" by player departures will undertake a key component of their Tokyo Olympics preparation at the Santos Festival of Rugby in Narrabri this week.
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The inaugural three-day event starts on Thursday, with the sevens action taking place on Friday and Saturday. The sevens actions will include NSW, Queensland, Australia Pacific and Fiji-based Tabadamu.
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"We're also using it [the tournament] as an Olympic trial as well," Australia coach Tim Walsh said. "Because we got decimated with losing some players both through finances and others taking up other contracts."
Last month Australia played in a tournament against NSW and Australia Pacific.
But Walsh said the Santos Festival of Rugby would be "our first real hitout with a bit of expectation and hype around it, which is awesome".
He said Australia had been "battling through COVID quite successfully".
"Sevens is a game that forces you to adapt," he said, adding: "And we've got a very positive attitude on how to go about things.
Olympic organisers have insisted the Tokyo Games will commence in July as planned despite the pandemic, which resulted in the event being postponed in 2020.
"All we can control is our preparations, and we keep the belief that it [the Olympics] is on," Walsh said, adding that the Games not going ahead as planned would be "shattering".
The highlight of the Festival of Rugby will be a preseason game between NSW and Queensland on Friday night.
