Ellia Green has been cutting her teeth as a rugby player for four years in the pursuit of an Olympic gold medal. It has cost her a couple of teeth along the way, too.The so-called fastest woman in world rugby, for a long time Green trained in track and field and had competed at international level for Australia before making a sudden move into the rough-and-tumble sport.Like so many players in the world series-winning Australian womens squad, it was games of backyard rugby with a brother as a child that provided the only real hint about the physical demands of the game.He always tried to get me involved. He tried to tackle me in the backyard, Green recalled of her brother, Mitchell, now 25 and still playing rugby union. It helped. Growing up, we were sort of rough with each other. He told me `You should try rugby, youd be so good at it.That wasnt exactly the unanimous family line. Her mother, Yolanta, wasnt really sold on the idea at first.She was unsure about it -- she was worried, Green said. `Ellia, cant you pick a sport where you cant get hurt?Four years later, by her reckoning, Green has had five operations.Finger surgeries, Ive lost teeth, shoulder operations, she said, running through her catalog of injuries. Thats one thing (Yolanta) was worried about.But above all, she said opportunities like this dont come often. If it wasnt for her, I probably wouldnt have gone on with it.Greens initial contact with rugby sevens was as a driver -- giving her cousin a ride to a Pathway to Gold talent identification tryout in Melbourne in 2012. There were women there from all kinds of sports, and from all over Australia.I wasnt planning on going at all. I was just taking my cousin, Green recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. It was spontaneous. There were 150-200 girls. They only picked two.One of those was Green, who was born in Fiji and raised in Australia.The team has several players drawn from other sports, including Chloe Dalton, who earlier had aspirations to be in Australias womens basketball team, field hockey players Shannon Parry and Sharni Williams, who was a full-time auto mechanic, and Charlotte Caslick and Alicia Quirk from touch football -- a non-contact form of rugby.Having a squad of full-time contracted players paid off in the womens world sevens series when the Australians broke New Zealands dominance of the competition,Green made more clean line breaks than anyone in the 2016 world series and scored 17 tries -- fourth on the list for the season -- lifting her career tally to 61. New Zealander Portia Woodman led the try-scoring for the season with 24, followed by Greens Australian teammate Emilee Cherry with 22 and Ghislaine Landry of Canada with 19.Australia won the first three titles in the five-event series and reached the final on the last stop to finish with 94 points, 14 clear of second-place New Zealand and 20 clear of Canada and England.The convincing series win make the Australians favorites for gold in Rio, but Green and her teammates are conscious that New Zealand timed its preparations to peak for the Olympic tournament which kicks off Saturday.Speed is one of the Australian teams biggest assets, and Green knows shell be in the targets of defenders for that reason. She looks inside and outside of the game for motivation, recalling the posters of sprinters she had on her walls in her track and field days, admiring the likes of Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.From a rugby sevens perspective, she looks to the likes of U.S. mens players Carlin Isles and Perry Baker.I do look up to speedsters, she said. I just like the power.Rugby is returning to the Olympics for the first time in 92 years, in the modified sevens version rather than the traditional 15-a-side game. Women will be playing for rugby medals for the first time, and Green sees that as an opportunity to break down some stereotypes.I want to be a tough girl who can do anything, she said. Im into my cars. I love building -- I did some construction work last year. I dont think there should be any boundaries to what girls should do. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys China . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Stitched Baseball Jerseys . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. http://www.cheapbaseballjerseysonline.com/ . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. Cheap Nike Baseball Jerseys Authentic . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. OTTAWA, Ontario -- Just four games into the season and the Ottawa Senators are already looking to improve on their consistency.Five Senators had a goal and an assist each as Ottawa defeated the Arizona Coyotes 7-4 on Tuesday night in front of a sparse crowd of 11,061 at Canadian Tire Centre. The win came a day after a 5-1 loss in Detroit where the Senators seemed sluggish.It was a good game to bounce back. We were disappointed with our effort (Monday) night and we had a meeting and talked about the things we need to improve on, said Tom Pyatt, who scored late in the first period on Tuesday.Tonight was definitely a better effort and we did all the simple things.Zack Smith had a short-handed goal and Bobby Ryan scored on the power play for the Senators. Mark Stone, Chris Kelly, Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson, into an empty net, also scored for Ottawa. Mike Hoffman had three assists. Craig Anderson made 31 saves to earn the win.Pyatt, Kelly, Turris, Stone and Karlsson all had two-point nights.With the back-to-back and the travel we just wanted to come out, play our game and be consistent with it, Turris said. We played a much better game but we gave up more shots than we would have liked but were clicking offensively. Its a work in progress.Jordan Martinook scored twice for Arizona, including his second at 18:43 just 30 seconds after Turris gave the Senators a 6-3 lead. Tobias Rieder and Oliver Ekman-Larsson had the other goals for the Coyotes.Arizona lost the services of starting goalie Mike Smith seven minutes into the third period when he suffered an injury to his left leg during a scramble in front of the net.Well re-evaluate (Wednesday), but its too early to get any diagnosis yet. Well just do our due diligence and find out what it is, Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said.Smith, who had stopped 27 of 30 shots before getting hurt, was replaced in the goal by Louis Domingue, who finished with eight saves but surrendered two goals on the first three shots he faced less than a minute after entering the game.Kelly capitalized on a giveaway and beat Domingue from in close at 7:30 and then Stone scored on a rebound at 8:11 giving the Senators a 5-2 lead.Martinook pulled the Coyotes within two at 10:07.Ekman-Larsson had cut the Senators lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal just 61 seconds into the third period.Smith scored a shorthanded goal to give the Senators a 3-1 lead.ddddddddddddOn his goal Smith got a great backhand pass from Pyatt and scored with a quick shot at 13:04. It was Smiths second goal of the season as he works to try and duplicate his career-high 25 goals from last season.The Coyotes had opened the scoring in the first period when Rieder beat Anderson on a rebound from the slot.The Senators are 3-0-0 at home this season and will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday before heading out on a three-game Western swing.The Coyotes continue their season-long six-game road trip in Montreal on Thursday.Smith, who had stopped 27-of-30 shots before getting hurt, was replaced in the goal by Louis Domingue, who surrendered two goals on the first three shots he faced less than a minute after entering the game.Kelly capitalized on a giveaway and beat Domingue from in close at 7:30 and then Stone scored on a rebound at 8:11 giving the Senators a 5-2 lead.Domingue finished with eight saves.Martincook pulled the Coyotes within two at 10:07.Ekman-Larson had cut the Senators lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal just 61 seconds into the third period.Zack Smith scored once shorthanded to give the Senators a 3-1 lead and in the final minute of the period he broke in alone on Mike Smith but his backhand shot went wide.On his goal Smith got a great backhand pass from Pyatt and scored with a quick shot at 13:04. It was Smiths second goal of the season as he works to try and duplicate his career high 25 goals from last season.The execution wasnt that good and its something we have to clean up, Tippett said. The difference in the game was we didnt execute very well and weve got some guys that arent competing as hard as they need to compete.Game notes Senators scratches were Matt Puempel and Phil Varone while Jacob Chychrun, Jamie McGinn and Christian Dvorak were scratches for the Coyotes. . The Senators first goal Tuesday snapped an 0-for-9 start to their power play this season. . Along with Strome, Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot was also making his NHL debut Tuesday night.UP NEXT:The Coyotes continue their season-long six-game trip in Montreal on Thursday.The Senators are 3-0-0 at home this season and will host Tampa Bay on Saturday before heading out on a three-game Western swing. 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