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Australian rugby’s all-conquering women’s sevens side continues to be the code’s shining light, winning in Dubai and ending a 41-game unbeaten streak for the New Zealand side they beat in the final.

There has not been much to celebrate in Australian rugby of late, but the re-signing last month of sevens sisters Maddison and Teagan Levi was a rare piece of good news among the litany off-field woes.

With the disappointing Wallabies Rugby World Cup campaign, the resignation of Eddie Jones and the circus surrounding Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan’s final few days at the helm, it seemed the life was being sucked out of the struggling code.

Now the Levi sisters and their teammates have given reason for cheer, proving they are genuine gold medal contenders at next year’s Paris Olympics with more stellar performances across the weekend in Dubai as Australia got off to the perfect start in the World Sevens Series.

Australia, who struck Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio Games before bombing out in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Games five years later, won the final 26–19, snapping a five-game losing streak against New Zealand and also breaking the Black Ferns’ impressive winning run on the sevens circuit.

On what proved to be a record-breaking weekend, Australia also became the first team to win the same sevens tournament four years in a row and Maddison Levi chalked up 12 tries across the tournament, becoming the first female player to achieve that feat in a single sevens weekend in Dubai.

Australian players after winning the Dubai Sevens. Credit: Getty

Australia cruised through the pool stages with victories over Brazil (39-0), Japan (66-0) and Ireland (33-5) before wins over the US (32-5) and France (21-14) in the knockout stages. Then they saw off New Zealand thanks in no small part to Teagan Levi, who scored two tries for a 14-point haul in the final.

“It’s amazing … it shows the depth we’re creating,” said Australian captain Charlotte Caslick. “Teagan, she’s unbelievable. She had an amazing pre-season and we’re all getting to see the hard work she’s done. We’ve all worked so hard for this.”

Australia, who won the world sevens series in 2021-22, have another seven tournaments around the globe before lining up at the Paris Olympics in late July.

Fans will get a chance to see Australia’s men’s and women’s sides on home soil for the last time before the Olympics when the Perth Sevens kick-off on January 26.

Meanwhile, Australia’s men’s team had to settle for seventh place after suffering a 24-7 defeat to South Africa in the quarter-finals.

“It’s been a big work on for us, consistency, and we haven’t quite got there just yet,” Australia coach John Manenti said.

“It’s a long season. It’s the start point and to be honest we’ve got a lot of work to do. We did have a few boys re-entering from pretty decent injuries and it was their first bit of footy for a while, so they’ll be better next week for that and we had a few young guys on debut.

“No question, we’ve got to lift our standards for next week.”

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