Australia Sevens star Aden Ekanayake believes their newfound consistency will have them in good stead as they ready themselves for the new-look SVNS Championship.
Moving from a singular Final, the changes see 12 teams battle it out for the Championship, across three events, with the top four teams from SVNS 2 joining the eight teams in the World Series to crown the overall champion.
Watch the 2025-2026 SVNS World Championship live and on demand via Stan Sport.
It begins in Hong Kong on Friday, the spiritual home of the circuit, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The Australians enter as the third-ranked team, having made four semi-final appearances across the six regular-season tournaments, despite no title success.
Ekanayake and the Aussies were hoping to replicate their 2022 efforts in Hong Kong, the last time the team hoisted silverware, as they look to make a strong start in the new format.
“It’s certainly different, you’ve got to put a bit more pressure on consistency and being able to stay consistent throughout because you might not win one of them, but if you finish top three in all three, you could come away with it,” he told Rugby.com.au.
“I think obviously we want to take the next step and go on and win one or win a couple, but we're putting ourselves in the right spot and I think our mantra this whole year has been this consistency and just giving ourselves a chance to be able to win one.
"...“It’s the spiritual home of Sevens. It was started here 50 years ago and it’s always the biggest event on the circuit. I think they’ve sold 140,000 tickets to the event and it’s a sell-out every day so it’s a massive event and we’re ready to rise to the challenge.
“The last time we won a tournament was here four years ago and it’s really special every time we come here. All the boys talk about that win and the memories so we’re trying to do it again.”
The importance of consistency is heightened by the potential threat of relegation to SVNS 2 in 2027, with the bottom four teams consigned to the second division.
“We’re obviously focused on winning the World Championship, which would be ideal, but we’ve touched on the fact that it’s something that can happen. We don’t focus on it because if you’re worried the whole time, you’re probably going to put yourself under too much pressure and fall into the trap and out of the World Series,” Ekanayake said.
“It certainly adds a bit of pressure with livelihoods at stake, but we try to keep the focus on our games and our performances. If we play well, it should take care of itself.”
Liam Barry’s side finds themselves drawn alongside two of the new teams in the Championship, first facing Kenya before taking on the USA.
They both finished in the top two of the SVNS 2 competition, with the Aussies knowing they’ll have a point to prove as they fight for promotion.
“We’ve been watching plenty of tape the last couple of weeks when we found out they were in our pools because you do get accustomed to the eight teams in the comp at the moment and getting used to playing the same teams,” Ekanayake added.
“We’ve done our homework and we’ll rely on the knowledge of the experienced guys like ‘Hutch’ [Henry Hutchison] and ‘Moz’ [Maurice Longbottom] who have been around long enough to know how these teams play and upskill the rest of the boys.”
The Australians have been forced into a late change, with Ethan McFarland in for Jayden Blake (quad).
