The Australia Men’s Sevens side will be without Nathan Lawson for the Cape Town leg of the 2024-25 SVNS World Series.
Lawson will return to Australia for personal reasons after featuring in their seventh-place finish in Dubai.
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The defending Shawn Mackay Award winner will depart the program at the end of the year, most recently named in World Rugby’s Team of the Year.
His absence sees Jayden Blake come into the squad for his debut in Australian colours.
Blake impressed for Randwick in the Shute Shield after being involved in Australia U20s squads in the past couple of years.
He becomes the third debutant for the team after Sid Harvey and Aden Ekanayake featured in Dubai.
The Cape Town leg sees the Sevens series undergo a new format with a cut-throat pool system.
Teams have been drawn in four pools of three, with only the top sides advancing to the semi-finals.
The Australians have been drawn alongside Dubai surprise packets Spain and Kenya, knowing they need to avoid a slow start like they had last week, eventually rallying to reach the quarter-finals.
“That first game was definitely a wake up and in Cape Town. we can't really have that with the pools being so cutthroat,” Ekanayake said.
“We'll need to be on from the get go.
“(Spain) were an absolute quality team last weekend and I'm sure they'll be the same this weekend in Cape Town.
“There are no easy games in this tournament. If you’re off by a little bit, you’ll lose a game even if you’re a good team.
“It’s very tight at the moment which is very good for competition.”
The Australians went down in the quarter-finals after a narrow defeat to Argentina, with Ekanayake knowing they’re not far off from competing with the best.
“Seventh probably isn't where we want to be. We've only like a couple of points off being a top-four placing side,” he added.
“This team definitely can definitely take it a lot further than we did in Dubai and we're looking to do that in Cape Town.”
