How Australia's women's rugby sevens team claimed back-to-back world series titles after Olympic heartbreak

Rugby sevens star Charlotte Caslick says Australia's recent success on the world series circuit comes after a shift in the side's game plan following a fifth-place finish at this year's Tokyo Olympics.

The Australian women's team claimed back-to-back titles in Dubai earlier this month, defeating Fiji in both finals.

Kicking off their 2021-22 world series campaign on a positive note has reassured the team that they're «now heading in the right direction».

«For a while, we got stuck trying to just copy and do everything the same as the Rio [Olympic] team and it just didn't work,» Caslick said.

«Even the girls that weren't backing up from that gold medal-winning side, I think they felt the pressure of defeating something that wasn't even theirs.

»They obviously didn't want to let anybody down and that weighed pretty heavy on some of them. To our own detriment, we were trying to play a structured game like the old team.

«We're working to the strengths of the girls we have in the group now, which was evident in Dubai. 

»They're so athletic and have the ability to keep the ball alive and offload. We didn't utilise that enough in Tokyo but we've found our style now."

Five of the 12 players from the Rio team backed up at the Tokyo Games, where Australia was expected to finish on thepodium, before Fiji shattered that dream in a 14-12 defeat in the quarter-finals.

Shannon Parry and Emma Tonegato have since retired from sevens, leaving a new cohort of players to take the reins, with assistance from Caslick and former skipper Sharni Williams.

Caslick recalls the devastation after crashing out in Tokyo but says the young side are hungrier than ever to fulfil their own Olympic dream, one she hopes to be a part of.

«It was really sad, even just