Australian Rugby Sevens coaches Tim Walsh and Liam Barry have named their squads for the opening round of the HSBC World Championships in Hong Kong from April 17.
Both coaches have made one change each following the New York event and ahead of the new format World Championships.
Bienne Terita returns to the Women's squad after missing the past two tournaments, with Walsh keeping an otherwise settled 13 that will go into the Championships seeded second.
Walsh has had the luxury of rotating his extended squad throughout the regular series with only Charlotte Caslick (pregnancy) unavailable for selection.
Maddison Levi will go into the World Championships as leading try-scorer for the 2025/2026 season after reaching 250 career tries in New York.
Australia Sevens Women’s coach Tim Walsh said: "We head off to Round 1 of the World Championships in iconic Hong Kong - the traditional home of Rugby Sevens.
"The first six legs have provided the squad with a lot of confidence and belief of performing well.
“The Black Ferns obviously go in as favourites but we will only be looking towards our pool games with South Africa emerging from the SVNS 2 Championship, the ever-improving Great Britain and then Paris silver medallists Canada."
For the Men's squad, James McGregor returns for Barry’s side with Ethan McFarland making way while James Turner will notch his 25th event in Hong Kong.
The Aussie Men enjoyed a strong regular series campaign, finishing third overall leading into the World Championships - their best efforts since last winning the series title in 2022.
Australia Sevens Men’s coach Liam Barry said: "We’re excited to start the World Championships at the home of Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong.
"It’s a competition restart after six regular rounds and with four additional teams that now adds another layer of pressure to play well and qualify for the World Series in 2027.
"We’ve got a relatively fit and available squad to choose from and the non-selected players will get game time through the Hong Kong 10s played earlier in the week."
Australia’s Men will meet Kenya, USA and New Zealand in the pool stages while the Aussie Women clash with South Africa, Great Britain and Canada.
Every round of the HSBC SVNS World Championships will be shown exclusive, ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport.
Australia Women’s Sevens team for 2026 HSBC SVNS World Championships Hong Kong:
2. Amahli Hala – 7 events
3. Faith Nathan – 38 events
5. Teagan Levi – 30 events
6. Madison Ashby (c) – 31 events
8. Kaitlin Shave – 12 events
9. Tia Hinds – 27 events
10. Isabella Nasser (c) – 23 events
12. Maddison Levi – 32 events
13. Heidi Dennis – 11 events
15. Kahli Henwood – 10 events
22. Bienne Terita – 20 events
55. Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea – 15 events
65. Sariah Paki – 40 events
Australia Men's Sevens team for 2026 HSBC SVNS World Championships Hong Kong:
1. Henry Hutchison (c) – 65 events 2. Ben Dowling – 26 events
3. James McGregor – 6 events 4. Dietrich Roache – 33 events 7. Josh Turner – 43 events 10. Ben Dalton – 15 events 11. Maurice Longbottom – 51 events 13. Jayden Blake – 12 events 14. James Turner – 24 events 23. Aden Ekanayake – 13 events 33. Harry Wilson – 6 events 49. Archie Saunders – 2 events 77. Wallace Charlie – 7 events
Players unavailable for selection
- Will Cartwright (shoulder) – 2026/2027 season
- Charlotte Caslick (pregnancy) – 2026/2027 season
- Henry Paterson (knee) – 2026/2027 season
HSBC SVNS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS HONG KONG SCHEDULE
AUSTRALIA MEN
- Friday 17 April: Australia v Kenya (7:56pm AEST)
- Friday 17 April: Australia v USA (11:10pm AEST)
- Saturday 18 April: Australia v New Zealand (3:47pm AEST)
AUSTRALIA WOMEN
- Friday 17 April: Australia v South Africa (2:25pm AEST)
- Friday 17 April: Australia v Great Britain (5:35pm AEST)
- Saturday 18 April: Australia v Canada (1:27pm AEST)
HSBC SVNS WORLD SERIES 2025/2026
- Dubai (29-30 November, 2025)
- Cape Town (6-7 December, 2025)
- Singapore (31 January-1 February, 2026)
- Perth (7-8 February, 2026)
- Vancouver (7-8 March, 2026)
- New York (14-15 March, 2026)
HSBC SVNS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2026
- Hong Kong (17-19 April, 2026)
- Valladolid (29-31 May, 2026)
- Bordeaux (5-7 June, 2026)
