Australia start SVNS season with thrilling upset win in Dubai

Australia have started their 2025/26 HSBC SVNS Series campaign with an upset 14-7 win over Spain at the Dubai Sevens. Spain finished third on the league standings last season and made the World Championship decider in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Coach Liam Barry selected a strong squad for the first stop of the season, with Olympian Dietrich Raoche among the big-name inclusions. Roache missed the entire 2024/25 season injured, but the playmaker returned in style at Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium.

It was a practically perfect start to the new campaign for Spain, who scored the first try of the match through Francisco Conscullela in the second minute. Conscullela broke tackle attempts from Wallace Charlie before racing away to place the ball down behind the uprights.

Spain couldn’t have started much better, but the Australians showed grit and character as they piled on 14 unanswered points to beat one of last season’s main contenders. Roache and Charlie both crossed for five-pointers in the first-term, before a scoreless second half.

Australia had the ball inside their own 22 when Ben Dalton ran an unders line off Josh Turner, running straight through a gap and upfield. Dalton didn’t quite have the pace, passing the ball on to Roache – marking a memorable return to the world’s premier sevens circuit.

Spain had a chance to hit back about one minute later, attacking with the ball inside Australia’s 22, but Turner won a pilfer penalty to relieve the danger. That was a key moment, but a knock-on shortly after gave the ball back to the Spaniards.

It was Australia’s defensive that truly stood tall during the first half, with their precision in attack allowing them to reap some rewards. In the final play of the half, three-time Olympian Henry Hutchison delivered a one-handed offload to Charlie who ran in for his first SVNS try.

While it appeared that Josep Serres had reduced the deficit to just two points with a try in the ninth minute, the TMO ruled out the score for a knock-on. The Aussies retained their seven-point advantage as a frantic game of sevens continued.

Australia had their own chances to score too, but a couple of passes drifted forward, including one that went Aden Ekanayake’s way with about one minute left. It was a tense end to the match but the Australians did enough to hold on.

“Awesome start here for our boys,” Maurice Longbottom said post-game on the broadcast.

“We’ve got a lot of new boys here as well so awesome start for them.

“… I tell you what, we’ve loved having him here,” he added about Roache’s return. “He’s been training for a long time, he’s been looking good for a really long time, and it’s awesome seeing him back doing his thing and scoring tries.”

Earlier on at the Dubai Sevens, the All Blacks Sevens started their season with a 21-14 win over Great Britain, in another match which came right down to the wire. Sione Milia was the hero, running in for the winning score inside the last minute.

Australia’s women’s side began their quest for a sixth-consecutive Dubai Sevens title with a commanding 31-7 triumph over Japan, with try-scoring machine Maddison Levi showing tremendous strength to score her first of the new campaign.