Alicia Lucas, previously Quirk, is thrilled Southern Inland plan to introduce girls tackle competitions next season.

Lucas was a touch prodigy before making the switch to rugby sevens at 18.

She believes the new under 13, 15 and 17 grades will be a massive boost for young girls looking to take up the sport.

"My transition at 18-year-old was a quite daunting and challenging experience to overcome, especially having never done contact and then doing physical contact against grown women," Lucas said.

"The fear factor is kind of taken away for those young girls if they are able to do it all the way through those teenage development years.

"They can build the skills and confidence as the mature into the senior women's competition.

"It's fantastic and I'm very jealous they have that opportunity.

"I might have played rugby sooner if those competitions were available back then."

Lucas believes it is exciting for the growth and development of junior girls rugby, with no real options for them after under 14s.

She hopes it will help girls stay playing sport.

"This will further boost the skill set development of the contact game in that age bracket of 13-17," Lucas said.

"It's only going to continue to foster improvement and development in all facets of the game through that age.

"We also know in female sports that is the biggest drop off for playing sport in general so the fact there is a competition, program and training allocated to girls to enjoy the game of rugby in a safe, fun, controlled contact environment is really exciting.

"Hopefully it brings more opportunities for girls to stay fit and active and involved in sport."

Australia are out to defend their Olympic crown at Tokyo next year.

After winning the World Series in 2018, the Pearls slipped to a fourth placed finish last season.

However after kicking off this season with a silver medal in Langford, Lucas believes they are building towards a massive season.

"We had one of the toughest pre-seasons to date and I think it has put us in really good stead to hit the ground running," she said.

"We started our season in Colorado in October by falling short in the final to the USA but had some really dominant performances over the weekend.

"We're building back that confidence in ourselves."

Lucas will be part of back-to-back World Series legs for the first time next month.

The teams heads off to Dubai before being part of the first women's event in Cape Town.

The playmaker believes it will be a great opportunity.

"It will be interesting to see how we can back up on both weekends and perform as that is what we are about this year," she said.

"It's all about building performance and building consistency so when the time comes next year for Tokyo everything is in place for us to do really well again."

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