Walsh's Australia in 'healthy position' ahead of new SVNS season

Australia Women’s Sevens coach Tim Walsh is enjoying selection headaches ahead of the new HSBC SVNS World Series season.

Just months removed from their second-place finish last term, the Australia squad has been refreshed after a number of players have returned from injury.

In 2024/25 Madison Ashby, Bienne Terita, Demi Kennewell (nee Hayes) and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea all missed significant time, while Charlotte Caslick and Tia Hinds missed chunks of the season on Wallaroos duty ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

This jostling of availability allowed the likes of Mackenzie Davis to emerge and win the RA Junior Women’s Player of the Year gong.

“When someone’s not there, (it’s) someone else’s opportunity to step up and I think what they got there last year, the experience that they got because of someone else’s bad fortune, it provides a great depth and foundation for a really competitive season in terms of competing for selection,” Walsh told rugby.com.au.

“As a program, we have to look at short-term, which is the next tournament and winning that, the medium-term, which is winning the World Series and then the long-term, which is ‘28 Olympics and ‘32 Olympics.

“We’ve got a pretty deep squad. Due to injuries sustained the year before, the girls have been able to get a season under their belts, and now that the returning girls are playing, there’s really strong competition.

“You’re always going to have the odd injury, and they’re always going to come back. (It’s a) healthy position with a lot of selection discussions, which is fantastic.”

Walsh’s side hope to win a sixth-straight Dubai Sevens next week to begin the new season on the front foot.

To start the new SVNS campaign Walsh will be without Kennewell, Lefau-Fakaosilea and Caslick as they continue their return from injury and aim to be back at full fitness in the New Year.

In their place Wallaroos trio Maya Stewart, Waiaria Ellis and Desiree Miller have been added to the playing group.

Miller registered six tries at the Women’s Rugby World Cup as the Wallaroos exited at the quarter-final stage, while 18-year-old Ellis gains vital experience on the world stage and Stewart offers her try scoring expertise to the cause.

“We’ve got elite athletes that are playing rugby, so it’s about how we can benefit each other. I’s really pleasing to have those girls in here playing,” Walsh said.

“They’re really excelling in certain areas and learning and wanting to play, and vice versa with the Sevens girls too.

“I think it’s a really important factor for the future of women’s rugby in Australia that the modelling of the rugby players and the talent that we have, to make sure that we are getting some outcomes that are needed and really important for the future of Rugby Australia.”