FOR Katy McLean and the rest of the England Women’s rugby team, the road to the Rio Olympics began in Dubai last weekend. If the rest of the journey proves as successful as the start, a medal-winning follow up to last year’s landmark World Cup win could be in the offing come next August.

England’s players finished third in the opening round of the World Sevens, beating France in the third-placed play-off after suffering a seven-point defeat to Russia at the semi-final stage.

Their quarter-final win over Canada represented an early-season show of strength, and while there are undoubtedly things to work on ahead of the next World Tour event in Sao Paulo in February, the decision to offer professional contracts in anticipation of rugby sevens’ Olympic debut next summer already looks to have been vindicated.

With their Olympic place guaranteed thanks to their performances earlier in the year, England’s players will head into 2016 with Rio firmly on their minds. And after their results last weekend, they will kick off Olympic year in a confident mood.

“If you’d offered us the opportunity to finish third and just miss out on a final place in the first tournament of the season, we’d definitely have taken it,” said McLean, who learned her trade with Darlington Mowden Park Sharks before going on to captain England to their 15-a-side World Cup success in 2014.

“Last year, we didn’t get off to a good start in Dubai, and that affected us for the rest of the season. The seedings for the later tournaments are taken from how you do in the first one, so this time around, we should be in much better shape.

“We played some good rugby, and we’re definitely seeing the benefits of what we’ve been working on in training. We’ve been working full-time together for a year or so now, and you’re really seeing the effects of that work.

“It makes a massive difference. It’s just nice to have the time to work on things properly as a group, and then be able to take all of that work into the big competitions.

“Last weekend gave us an early chance to measure ourselves against the best teams in the world, and I think we showed up pretty well. There are things to work on, but I think we’re generally pretty happy with where we’re at.”

Head coach Simon Middleton will use the next seven months to settle on the 12-woman squad that will eventually be selected for Rio, potentially with two other players selected as reserves.

Last weekend’s squad provided an early indication of his thinking, with McLean starting the majority of the games in her role as the team’s main place kicker.

The 29-year-old’s experience and play-making abilities make her an extremely strong candidate for an Olympic place, but she will not be taking anything for granted despite her senior status in the 15-a-side code.

“The competition for the Olympic squad is going to be massive,” said McLean. “There are so many good players within the England system at the moment, and then you’ve also got players from the other countries (in Britain) that will be hoping to be involved as well.

“We’ve had four girls training with us from Wales and Scotland, and although we have to play as England in the World Sevens, we’ll be fielding mixed GB teams in some invitational tournaments to help us get used to playing together as a group.

“It’s a pretty wide pool that Simon will have to pick from, but to be honest, there’s so much rugby to be played over the next five or six months that you can’t get too hung up on what might or might not happen at the Olympics.

“It’s obviously there in the background, and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t thinking about it at all. But if you don’t do the work in training and perform well in the games between now and then, all talk of Rio will be irrelevant really.”

The switch to professionalism in the women’s game forced McLean to give up her previous job as a teacher at Bexhill Academy in Sunderland in order to relocate to Guildford, close to the English women’s team’s permanent training base.

Having been born and raised in South Shields, the proud North-Easterner admits she still misses her home and former team-mates with Mowden.

However, she has successfully adapted to life in the south and is relishing the opportunity to be a full-time sportswoman rather than having to squeeze her rugby career around the constraints of her former career as a teacher.

“I’m more settled and this all feels a bit more normal now,” she said. “I’ve managed to settle a bit more into the lifestyle that I want to live.

“It still feels a bit incredible to be living the life of a professional rugby player to be honest. I don’t think any of us ever thought we’d get to the stage where this was our career.

“It’s great to have the chance to hopefully build on what we did at the World Cup. We want to do well next summer, and we want to try to be able to encourage girls to take up rugby by saying, ‘Look, you can make a really good career out of this now’.”