Levi's hat-trick and a last-minute winner: Australia take both Kick On Sevens games

The Black Ferns Sevens opened their season in Sydney with two defeats to Australia, 24-19 and 36-26, at the inaugural Kick On Sevens at Woollahra Oval on Friday night. They were pre-season matches, not capped appearances, and the same two teams meet again this afternoon at Accor Stadium.

Game one: 24-19 to Australia

The first match went to the last minute. Maddison Levi, the Australian star, scored twice and Mackenzie Davis crossed early in the second half, but it took Kaitlin Shave's try in the final minute to win it for Australia 24-19. Jorja Miller, New Zealand's two-time World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, was involved in three New Zealand tries.

Game two: 36-26 to Australia

The second game was Levi's. She scored a first-half hat-trick, the first of the three inside 15 seconds of the kick-off. New Zealand also took a yellow card in the match, and Australia scored twice while the Black Ferns were a player short. Match reports so far do not name New Zealand's scorers or give any coach comment from the Friday night.

Why Australia, again

Nobody plays these two teams as often as they play each other. All six regular-season finals of the 2025/26 series were New Zealand against Australia: the Black Ferns Sevens won five of them, in Dubai, Singapore, Perth, Vancouver and New York, and took the League title 118 points to 110. Australia won the other regular-season final, in Cape Town, then beat New Zealand in the Valladolid semifinal and the Bordeaux World Championship final to take the world title.

Australia coach Reg Tayler called the Sydney trip "the perfect hit out" for his side before the games. Levi, back from an off-season in the Ultimate Sevens league, is the player to watch, and Isabella Nasser captains the Australian squad of 16. The men's series between Australia and Fiji finished 1-1 on Friday, Fiji winning 10-0 and Australia 24-14, with Bailey Roberts-Lintmeijer and Maurice Longbottom among the Australian try-scorers.

The New Zealand side

New Zealand coach Cory Sweeney named 13 players, with Risi Pouri-Lane, the three-time Olympic gold medallist, as captain. The squad includes five players in the jersey for the first time: Renee Holmes, crossing from fifteens with 33 Tests behind her, and four newcomers. Nothing published so far says how many minutes each of them played, so that story is for later in the weekend. We told the squad's stories on Friday, player by player.

Today's rematch

The Black Ferns Sevens play Australia again today at Accor Stadium, the curtain-raiser to the Bledisloe Cup Test, the first time an international sevens match has been played before an All Blacks Test. The kick-off is listed between 4.25pm and 4.35pm New Zealand time. Sweeney called it "a special occasion to be a part of the Bledisloe Cup event" when the fixture was announced. The new HSBC SVNS season starts in Dubai on 28 and 29 November, and this weekend is the first chance to see what the squad looks like when it gets there.