Australia claim podium double at Hong Kong Rugby Sevens

Seven months after coming up empty-handed at the Paris Olympic when both teams finished fourth, the Aussies turned on the style at the mecca of Sevens, winning silver and bronze at the opening of the spectacular Kai Tak Stadium.

The Australian women finished runners-up to New Zealand, losing the final to their arch rivals New Zealand 26-19, with Maddison Levi scoring two tries to take her tally for the weekend to 14.

The best women’s player in the world by a country mile, Levi has every reason to hate the New Zealanders but said she respects their incredible consistency after her new look, young Aussie team fell short.

“I love playing the Kiwis. I guess we both have such a high skill game, so when we verse each other, you get better as a team,” she said,

“I know they love playing us and we love playing them just to keep growing our games. And obviously watching them, they’ve been such a successful for so many years and credit to them.”

Australia Women’s coach Tim Walsh said: “We are never happy after a loss but as far as losses go, this one won’t keep me up worrying.

“The performance from this team against the odds was excellent.”

The Australian men beat Fiji 22-21 in the bronze medal playoff after Sid Harvey scored the winning try after the siren.

The Australian co-captain Henry Hutchison, who was part of the team that won the Hong Kong title in 2022, said it was a great consolation after they lost to eventual champions Argentina in the semis.

“We’re here to win every time, we have a good track record here in Hong Kong, we were really disappointed with the Argentinian game, we didn’t fire a shot,” he said.

“Sometimes we lose to a better team, so to bounce back and get a win was really crazy.

“It’s a bit nostalgic, beating Fiji is great, beating them in Hong Kong’s even better. They think it’s their home ground, we disagree, we’ve beaten them here the last two times, so yeah, we’ll keep doing it.”

Australia eye unprecedented Sevens double

Australia remained on course for a shot at an unprecedented double at the mecca of Rugby Sevens after both the men’s and women’s team stormed into the semi-finals in Hong Kong.

Runners-up in their pool after losing their opening match to New Zealand, the Aussie men thumped Britain 34-5 in the quarter-finals to chalk up their third sudden-death win in a row to reach the last four at Hong Kong’s stunning new Kai Tak Sports Stadium.

The Aussie women are undefeated after demolishing the United States 35-5 in the quarters to avenge their gut wrenching loss to the Americans in the bronze medal playoff at last year’s Paris Olympics.

“We can never get over the Olympics. That was a very hard loss,” said Australian star Faith Nathan,

“We’ve learned a lot and grown a lot. So I think coming out and beating the USA was really good for us and the young ones.”

Nathan scored two tries, as did her teammate Maddison Levi, who lifted her tally for the tournament to nine and her career aggregate to 191.

Something of an unsung hero, Australian head coach Tim Walsh said Nathan’s contribution to the team’s success was immeasurable.

“Maddi Levi never forgets it. She says that ‘I get to score all these tries because of what the other people do’ and having Faith on the other side, playing centre, defending, playing edge,” Walsh said.

“She goes into halfback and she’s pretty resilient too. She’s a real champion and. She certainly leads our team in and around the training environment.”

Australia’s women play France in Sunday’s semis with Olympic champions New Zealand on the other side of the draw. The Kiwis have won the past two tournaments since the world series first included a women’s leg in Hong Kong in 2023.

The Aussie men will play Argentina in the semis with hopes of an upset after rebounding from their poor start to the tournament.

The South Americans are currently ranked number one in the world so will start favourites but the Australians won the title at Hong Kong as recently as 2022.

“We call ourselves day two specialists,” Australian halfback Maurice Longbottom said.

“We don’t like to do things the easy way in this team, we like to do the hard things and make it hard for ourselves.

“We could have made it easier by winning the first game but when things don’t go to plan, you’ve just got to bite down the mouth guard and keep turning up and that’s what we’ve done.”

Levi lights up Hong Kong, shatters Australian try scoring record

Now Australia’s most prolific try scorer in any code, Maddison Levi has made a stunning return to the world stage after breaking her thumb, scoring seven tries on the opening day of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament.

Playing in green and gold for the first time since fracturing thumb in a freak accident at Perth in January, Levi started where she left off, lighting up Hong Kong’s brand new national stadium with a hat trick for the Australian women’s 54-12 demolition of Spain.

Three hours later, Levi went one better, scoring all of four Australian trials in the team’s 26-15 win over Paris Olympic silver medalists Canada to secure her side’s place in Saturday’s quarter-finals at the opening of the 50,000 Kai Tak Sports Park stadium.

With her seven tries, Levi lifted her career tally to 189 – surpassing Charlotte Caslick’s Australian record of 186.

“Charlotte’s been my idol and she’s been my mentor throughout all the years,” Levi said.

“For her to be able to help me get to the level I’m able to play at is pretty awesome.

“But records don’t really matter to me. It’s just about getting the win.”

No woman or man in rugby, league or Sevens has scored as many tries in Australia’s colours than the freakishly talented Levi, who is on pace to crack the 200 barrier this weekend and eventually eclipse the all-time record of 264 held by New Zealand’s Michaela Brake.

The World Sevens Player of the Year in 2024, Levi leads this season’s try scoring lists with 37 tries despite missing half the Australian leg the entire last round in Vancouver.

National coach Tim Walsh said having Levi back in his lineup was almost an unfair advantage for the Aussie, but one he was glad to have.

“We call her cheat code, iconic or whatever,” Walsh said.

“It’s pretty handy to have someone who you know when she gets the ball, her strike rate’s at about 50% whether she scores or not so the more times you get the ball in her hands the better.

“But we do have to earn the right for that. We do have to make sure that we’re doing some electric movement and creating a little bit of space for her to do her magic.”

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Levi said was feeling unusually nervous about returning to the team after her injury layoff but her anxiety helped her grow a leg as she completely overpowered her opponents through her superior strength and speed.

“Just having a little bit of a break, you kind of second-guess your ability and doubt yourself,” she said.

“If I score a try, I score a try, but it’s not really my sole focus. It’s about how I can contribute to the team to get a win.”