SVNS Series champion’s surprise take on ‘strongest team’ in women’s sevens

Australian SVNS Series try-scoring machine Faith Nathan has labelled Canada “probably the strongest team” in women’s sevens before the new season. The 2024/25 HSBC SVNS Series starts this weekend with the opening tournament in Dubai from November 30 to December 1.

Defending overall Series champions Australia will begin their quest for more silverware with pool stage matches against China, Fiji and Ireland. The Irish stunned Australia in the SVNS Perth Cup Final in January, so this pool stage clash could shake up the competition.

But beyond the Aussies’ immediate focus in Pool A, there will be an intriguing matchup in Pool C on the opening day of the new season between two genuine title contenders. New Zealand will play Canada in the third round of pool play, pitting the two Olympic finalists against each other.

Team Canada enjoyed a fairytale run to the gold medal match at the Paris Olympic Games after knocking off tournament hosts France in a quarter-final upset and then stunning SVNS Series champions Australia in a dramatic semi-final at Stade de France.

While the Canadians fell short of glory in a closely contest hit-out against gold medallists New Zealand, there’s no chance they fly under the radar before the new season. While the Kiwis, Aussies and French have long been the teams to beat, Canada are another heavyweight.

In an interview with RugbyPass at the Rugby Australia Awards in October, Nathan was quick to highlight the Canadians as a force to be reckoned with before the opening two legs of the new campaign in Dubai and Cape Town (December 7 to 8).

“Canada, they improved throughout the whole season,” Nathan told RugbyPass.

 “(Coach Tim) Walshy did say a couple of seasons ago, he did say, ‘Watch out, Canada will come up’ and then he was like, ‘I told you girls.’

“So, Canada, France, USA and of course, New Zealand. But at the moment Canada’s probably the strongest team.”

That semi-final match between Canada and Australia will not be forgotten any time soon. This writer has spoken with last season’s captain Charlotte Caslick and World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Maddison Levi about the Olympics, which has been tough for them to process.

Following their triumph at the SVNS Series World Championship event at Madrid’s Civitas Metropolitano, Australia were considered one of the clear favourites for gold alongside New Zealand. France, the USA and Canada were all talked up as other candidates to make the podium.

It seemed unanimous that the rugby world tipped Australia to at least walk away with silver, but sport doesn’t always play out as expected. The Aussies were relegated to the bronze medal match by the Canadians, and that’s when Ilona Maher’s USA made their own history.

Alex ‘Spiff’ Sedrick raced away for an incredible length-of-the-field try to level the scores at 12-all with time up on the clock. As Sedrick recently revealed to RugbyPass, the American then converted the try despite not even practising that skillset at training.

Australia finished fourth.

“Personally for me, it was very hard. I think we worked so hard to podium, we didn’t get the result we wanted and I think what helped me a lot was having time off away from sevens,” Nathan explained.

“My partner and I went to Bali. We just needed to regroup, reset, and then once we came back home we could actually think about what happened at the Olympics.

“It hit when we came back. I was really emotional, I was sad, I was going through anger, I was going through a lot of emotion. But I think what helped me was my family, my partner got me through all this.

“I think coming into the new season it’s helped me because I feel like I’m more prepared… I’m very hungry to hopefully get selected and still stay at sevens and chase that (Olympic) medal (in LA 2028).”

12 months ago, Nathan and the rest of the Australia women’s sevens side were on song as they brought an end to New Zealand’s incredible unbeaten run. They knocked off their neighbouring rivals from across the ditch in a dramatic Cup Final at Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium.

The Aussies went on to take out Cup Final glory in Cape Town and then finish second at their home event in Perth – later winning the Grand Final event as mentioned above. But with the new season rolling around, now is the time for the players to put the Olympics behind them.

“This season we’ll not really focus on the Olympics,” she added.

“Okay, that’s happened, we want to move on and focus on this new season.

“We’ve got some young girls coming up which is really exciting. We’ve got… all these girls coming up from development, Aus A, so it’s good to see them have a crack.”