By MARK CASHMAN

The Warringah Ratettes will have a golden glow about them on Saturday when they take on Eastern Suburbs in the Jack Scott Cup at Pittwater Rugby Park.

Three members of the gold medal winning Australia sevens side from Rio, Chloe Dalton and Elia Green will turn out for the Ratettes along with the well-credentialed Wallaroo and Rio skipper Sharnie Williams.

The game against the Beasties Ladies will kick off at 4.40pm, shortly after the finish of the men’s Shute Shield encounter.

Ironically the national women’s sevens team would have been in Tokyo this week attempting to defend their gold medal, but obviously the Covid-19 pandemic came into play.

Their appearance at Rat Park this weekend is nice outcome from that pandemic sandwich we are all working our through and obviously a great experience for some of the up and coming players in the Ratettes and the Beasts.

Only last weekend Wallaroos prop Emily Robinson made her return to the playing field 192 days after they found some fractures in here neck.

All three are still contracted to the national sevens program under John Manenti who says that game play is a great bonus for anyone in his program.

“We’re looking for all the girls in the program to get some game exposure whether that be in 15s or Sevens over the next six weeks or so,” Manetti said.

Other squad members to play Jack Scott Cup this weekend are Jakyia Whitfield at Sydney Uni when they play the Hunter Wildfires in Newcastle while Demi Hayes and Rhiannon Byers will play for Randwick Magic against the Western Sydney Two Blues at Lidcombe Oval.

Madi Ashby, Sariah Paki, Faith Nathan and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea will all play sevens for Manly in a tournament on Sunday.

Dalton has only just come back into the national sevens squad after walking away from the game a little over 18 months ago to try her hand at AFLW with Carlton.

That was considered a great success with Dalton’s prodigious kicking game a major asset for the Blues in her time there.

The lure of a repeat effort at the Olympics was too much for her though and she has been welcomed back with open arms under the Manenti regime.

Green and Williams have been concentrating on their fitness but other like Charlotte Caslick and Emma Tonegatto have said they are open to offers from the NRLW competition as long as the door to the Olympics is open once the league season finishes.

Sydney Uni are the defending Jack Scott Cup champions having defeated Randwick Magic 34-3 in the grand final last year.

Warringah’s chances must have increased dramatically with the addition of the three gold medalists though.