Wallaroos back-rower Emily Chancellor has made a pointed statement that there is no "divide" between squad members and Australian sevens recruits following comments made by former Wallaby and player agent Mat Rogers last week.
Preparing to face Fijiana in the Wallaroos first Test match of the year in Suva on Saturday, Chancellor said the squad had welcomed sevens recruits Charlotte Caslick, Tia Hinds and Bienne Terita with open arms and had enjoyed witnessing the trio find their feet in a new environment.
"I have felt all three of those sevens girls have really committed to being part of this squad and there isn't any divide, there's nothing to be worried about or talked about because they just are here to be 15s players and put their best foot forward just like everyone else," Chancellor said when asked about the sevens players experiences in camp.
"I think for the first week it's been very much about them just taking on board the environment, really being sponges to the 15s game. Tia's played quite a bit before she got into the sevens, but Charlotte has been just so open and so keen to learn, asking questions, making mistakes, changing the behaviours and just the desire to be a part of it."
Speaking on Stan Sport's Inside Line last week, Rogers -- Australian sevens star Maddi Levi's current agent -- expressed his concerns with parachuting Levi into the squad ahead of the World Cup, labelling the move as "set up to fail", before he mentioned the potential for "animosity" to creep into the group if several sevens players are shoehorned into the squad.
"I just think we should let the sevens girls do what they do and then right before the World Cup just say to all sevens girls, you can go and play in the 15s and see if it doesn't create any animosity between the players," Rogers said.
"That's what's happened this year, and it wasn't pretty. I'm being facetious there, but it's been unfair on the sevens girls and unfair on the 15s girls.
"I just know as a player, if I'm busting my butt in the 15s team, and all of a sudden you get these seven or eight girls want to play 15s ... I would have been absolutely filthy."
Levi was set to line up for the Queensland Reds during the Super Rugby Women's season but was unavailable after breaking her hand. She was part of an eight-player cohort -- including her sister Teagan -- committed to the 15-player game but only Caslick, Hinds and Terita put their hand up for selection for the Fiji tour match with the Levi sisters, Demi Hayes and Bella Nasser unavailable due to the upcoming SVNS Championship in LA this weekend.
Caslick, Hinds and Terita made the 40-player wider training squad last week before they were named in the cut down 30-player group that has travelled to Fiji this week with the potential for Caslick and Hinds to make their Wallaroos debuts if named in the 23.
Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp named a mix of youth and experience in her squad with NSW Waratahs breakout star Falika Pohiva earning a spot alongside incumbent fly-half Faitala Moleka's sister Manu'a Moleka. But there was also the surprising absence of experienced playmaker Bella McKenzie. Chancellor said she wasn't privy to the reasoning behind her omission but credited it to the depth within the squad.
"I haven't personally had a conversation with Jo about it, but I think it's opportunity," the back-rower said. "We've talked about growth, we've talked about challenges that we need to face and how the whole 40, plus the girls that haven't made it into this camp, are going to be part of the bigger picture. We have seven Test matches, it's not a World Cup team that's going to be picked for this weekend.
"It's a part of the growth plan and if that means that Bella steps out to potentially give someone else a challenge this week, who knows what it means for the next three or four games or the New Zealand Test or the Wales series before we get to that space.
"I think it's a probably a real credit to the depth that we have growing in those key game driver positions, but I definitely don't think that Bella is out of the picture at this stage."
Meanwhile, it remains unclear what 23 will take to the pitch on the weekend with the potential for Yapp to blood several young players ahead of a massive year.
"There's been no illusion to anything in terms of team selection. I would love to have an ear to the ground to catch those little bits of information too, but all that we've focused on in this first camp has been about growth. So, you know, interpret that as you like.
"But I see that as this is a big year, we've got a lot of Test matches and this is an opportunity for people to perform based off camp performances, but whether she picks what you might say is the experienced team or an inexperienced team or a building block that's still to be seen."