Australia Sevens lock in Olympic duo ahead of new SVNS Series season

Paris Olympians Kahli Henwood and Tia Hinds are the latest players to re-sign with the Australia Sevens program, while two rising stars from the men’s team have also penned fresh deals ahead of next month’s HSBC SVNS Series opener.

Australia Sevens have been steadily announcing player updates on Instagram, before the new season gets underway in Dubai on November 29-30. The circuit will also head to Cape Town’s DHL Stadium before the New Year.

Rugby Australia’s Junior Women’s Player of the Year Mackenzie Davis recently re-committed to the program for 2026, along with youngsters Amahli Hala and Piper Simons. All three made their SVNS Series debuts during the 2025 season.

As the Australian Women’s Sevens side looks to defend their title in Dubai yet again, there’s more good news, with Henwood and Hinds returning. Henwood represented Australia at the Paris Olympics before debuting on the SVNS Series, quickly becoming a mainstay of that squad.

 

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Hinds will be back on the sevens circuit in 2025/26 after missing last season’s World Championship event in Los Angeles. After captaining Australia at SVNS Singapore, Hinds switched to 15s in a bid to play for the Wallaroos at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp started Hinds at fly-half against the Black Ferns in Newcastle earlier this year, with the playmaker going on to play an important role in the team’s World Cup campaign, including an appearance off the bench in the quarter-final defeat to Canada.

 

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“The standard of our playing group is incredible. We have Olympians amongst our group but they put so much time and effort into making sure that we’re all ready,” Davis told RugbyPass and Rugby.com.au at the 2025 Rugby Australia Awards.

“Our coaching staff and our playing group just give so much confidence in one another and we support each other. I think it’s easy just to go out there and back yourself when you’re supported by such an incredible group of women.”

Australia Sevens also revealed last week that James McGregor and Jayden Blake are in the squad this season. McGregor debuted under former coach John Manenti and will wear the No. 13 for the Australia Men’s side during the upcoming campaign.

Blake is currently in Tauranga, New Zealand, with the team ahead of Ignite7 at Blake Park. The All Blacks Sevens and Fiji will play the Aussies twice each in warm-up matches ahead of the first two stops of the SVNS Series in a matter of weeks.

“Playing sevens, you’re constantly running 10 [kilometres] a day, getting flogged but I guess we love it, we’re a bit sick in the head,” Australia Men’s Player of the Year James Turner told RugbyPass and Rugby.com.au at the Rugby Australia Awards.

“I love it, I love the boys and I’ll happily run 10 [kilometres] with them every day.

“I think we’re in a really good spot compared to last year. We’ve got a really good, gelled group, really good core group that’s carried on from last year. I think we’re on to bigger and better things.

“We’re sort of a bit of a roller-coaster last year because we had a bit of inexperience, but coming into this year, I think the boys are flying. This is my fourth year and it’s getting pretty hard and training because all the boys are quite good.”