ENGLAND rugby star Natasha Hunt could be heading for Rio next summer after helping the national team to Olympic qualification.

Drybrook-raised 'Mo', who signed a full-time contract to play for her nation last August, hit four tries in the Amsterdam leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series over the weekend.

England needed to finish in fourth in the overall standings, leap-frogging both France and USA, in order to guarantee qualification for the Sevens tournament in Rio de Janeiro next summer.

And they did just that, after winning the third-place play-off against USA in a tense 15-14 win decided in the dying moments.

"We knew with the points difference we had, if we could catch France and USA, we'd finish fourth," Natasha said.

"We knew going into Amsterdam what we needed to do and that we needed other results to fall into place for us, and thankfully it all happened. Everyone wanted it so badly.

"We knew we had to give everything. There were times when things didn't go the way we wanted throughout the series. If we didn't qualify, we could at least have said we did all we could."

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