The money was part of a larger invested worth AUS$122 million (£73 million/$92 million/82 million) from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

For 2018, the women’s rugby sevens side, who won gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, will now have a total fund of AUS$125 million (£851,000/$953,000/€851,000) heading into the Games on home soil.

Bill Pulver, chief executive of Australian Rugby Union, said the money will not help the team at next year’s Games, but will also be a boost for Tokyo 2020 Olympic preparations.

"Sevens Rugby was a hit at the 2016 Rio Olympics and extremely competitive, with six countries sharing in the medals," he said.

“Our gold medal was in no small part to the support received from the ASC, as we were able to establish a centralised Sevens program which was a game-changer for the program.

"The additional funding for our Women's Sevens program will assist the team with their Commonwealth Games and World Series campaigns in 2018 and is great recognition of their achievements to date, including winning Australia's first team Olympic Gold Medal since 2004.

"We look forward to continuing to work with the ASC and AIS to ensure that our women's and men's teams are given every opportunity to build on the foundations laid by their 2016 success."

Rugby sevens has been part of the Commonwealth Games sports programme since the 1998 edition in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

However, next year’s event will be the first time a women’s competition has been staged.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games are to take place between April 4 and 15.

Australia are currently third in the Women's World Rugby Sevens Series standings with one event left to be played.