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Faith Nathan on Australia’s SVNS hunger and award-winning success
By Finn Morton reporting from Sydney
Player of the Year Faith Nathan insists the Australian Women’s Sevens side are truly “motivated” ahead of the new HSBC SVNS Series season, as they look to reclaim world champion status after falling short last time around.
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Australia finished second at the winner-takes-all World Championship last season, defeated by arch-rivals New Zealand 31-7 at Dignity Health Sports Park. That capped off a memorable season for the Kiwis, who claimed four titles during the regular season.
As for the Aussies, their reign as SVNS Series champions came to an end with that result. They had defeated the New Zealanders during their run to championship glory in Madrid in 2023, with Tia Hinds the hero in a thrilling semi-final under the Spanish sun.
Rugby Australia’s Junior Women’s Player of the Year Mackenzie Davis explained last week that the sevens side have “amazing girls coming back from injury” for the upcoming campaign, which gets underway at the end of next month at the Dubai Sevens.
Deep into what’s no doubt been another gruelling pre-season, Nathan echoed what Davis had said, confident the group will be on song at the season opener on November 29-30 at The Sevens Stadium.
“The group’s so motivated,” Nathan told RugbyPass and Rugby.com.au at the 2025 Rugby Australia Awards.
“At the moment, we’re in pre-season, so it’s been a pretty long pre-season, but once we hit Dubai we’re ready to go.”
Nathan was keeping her sevens teammates updated throughout the Rugby Australia Awards in Sydney last week, cheering on others like Davis and Maddison Levi who collected major awards, but the speedster wasn’t expecting the top prize.
After another strong season in the gold jersey, Nathan was nominated for the Women’s Shawn Mackay Award alongside team captain Isabella Nasser and try-scoring machine Levi, with that honour recognising the team’s best and most consistent player.
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With Wallabies, Wallaroos and other sevens stars watching on, Nathan was presented with the prestigious award before walking backstage. “Was not expecting this,” Nathan said quite candidly, as one of six award winners from the sevens program on the night.
Davis took out Junior Women’s Player of the Year, while Aden Ekanayake and Sid Harvey shared Junior Men’s Player of the Year. Levi was crowned the Defender of the Year after a memorable try-saver on Kelsey Teneti in Singapore, and James Turner won the Men’s Shawn Mackay Award.
“It’s pretty awesome seeing a lot of the sevens players come through winning awards,” Nathan said.
“It’s just amazing.”
Nathan, Levi and Nasser all stood up for the Australian side last season, after the team lost some key players to injury and 15s. Three-time Olympian Charlotte Caslick stepped away from the SVNS Series in a bid to play at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.
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Kaitlan Shave, Madison Ashby and Demi Hayes all spent time on the sidelines. With those injuries, younger players like Davis, Piper Simons and Amahli Hala had opportunities to step up on the world SVNS Series stage.
“It’s pretty tough but the young girls that are coming through, they’re amazing,” she added.
“Seeing these young girls come up through the ranks is really awesome.”