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From AFLW draftee to Olympics hopeful: Teagan Levi’s rise to SVNS stardom
By Finn Morton
Teagan and Maddison Levi would’ve been two of the most in-demand athletes in sporting-mad Australia before they made the decision to re-sign with the Australian sevens program this month.
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Both Levi sisters have found a home in sevens, and that’s a breath of fresh air for the code following a shambolic few months for rugby union in Australia.
While both sisters were drafted by the Gold Coast Suns in AFLW, the star duo will continue to don Aussie gold for the foreseeable future after penning a deal beyond the Paris Games.
Coach Tim Walsh revealed last week that they had “daily and weekly” offers from rival codes, and it must’ve been temping. Speaking with RugbyPass last year, Maddison said she couldn’t “go a whole day without crying” after leaving the Suns.
Young sister Teagan made the same call to leave AFLW behind, without even playing a game of professional Aussie Rules – although the talent had taken photos in a Suns jersey.
But as the now 20-year-old put it: “We both had that dream to chase and rugby sevens offered that a little bit more.” That decision changed their lives forever.
Both sisters played in Australia’s gold medal-winning sevens side at the 2022 Birmingham Games, they won the 2022 Rugby Sevens World Cup in South Africa, and are World Series champions too.
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But there’s a bigger prize on the horizon. Greatness awaits on the world’s biggest sporting stage with nations set to come together at the Paris Olympics next July.
“I got drafted and then obviously rugby approached our manager saying that they wanted us as well,” Tegan Levi told RugbyPass in Brisbane earlier this month.
“It was such a hard decision because growing up I loved both sports and I still love it to this day but you have to look at the future and I think rugby sevens offers more… getting to travel the world and I (with it) being an Olympic year this year it’s pretty exciting.
“We always say the door is not shut to AFLW, we could always go back, but right now my eyes are set on that Olympic medal.
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“We’re definitely our own person, 100 per cent, but I think we both had that dream to chase and rugby sevens offered that a little bit more than AFLW.
“That opportunity, once you put your foot in the door, obviously only 13 get to travel to each tournament and 12 people get to play so… once you’re in the door you have to keep your foot there.
“AFL is always there to come back to but as I said, at the moment the priority is rugby sevens.”
In the second half of last season’s World Sevens Series, the Levi sisters showcased their attacking flair and bone-crunching defence as they formed a formidable partnership in Aussie gold.
Maddison went on to break the record for tries scored in a single season with 57, and the 21-year-old was rewarded for her form with a nomination for World Rugby’s Sevens Player of the Year.
While Maddison didn’t win, it just goes to show that the Levi’s are the real deal. Teagan even joked – half serious, half not – that she wants to “be up there with the best but I’ll let her shine for a bit.”
“The Sydney Sevens, I was going on off the bench… then I think (coach Tim) Walshy just had some trust in me and finally got to have a kick and show that I can actually kick,” Teagan added.
“I think it’s good that he believes in me. Hopefully, I can keep starting now as starting kicker and be a young leader for those coming up and coming into the program, but also to guide the team.
“Everyone on the field needs a voice and we always say that it’s a team sport so not one person can do the job, you need effort, support no matter what. I think if we’re all helping each other out, not just one person speaking up for all of us then hopefully we’ll get that job done.”
Following a breakout campaign on the world sevens stage, Teagan is hoping to contribute even more to the successes of the Australian sevens program moving forward.
With the new-look SVNS series getting underway in Dubai this weekend, preseason is in the books. Now is the time for players to make their mark when it counts.
Australia have been globetrotting as they ramped up their preparation for the season. The Aussies flew to Italy, Ireland and Fiji for various small-scale sevens competitions and training runs.
They even get the better of a New Zealand development side – which included World Cup winner Theresa Fitpatrick and rising star Jorja Miller – at Brisbane’s Ballymore Stadium at the Oceania Sevens.
But that’s all in the past. The new-look SVNS series awaits, and the Olympics are not too far behind.
“We always say that if it was easy, everyone would do it.
“When times get hard and tough we always say, ‘You’ve got to support that person next to you because they’re going to help you win that gold medal.’
“When you’re dying out on that field you’ve got to take that next step and push yourself so I think we’re really working hard on supporting each other and hopefully we get that gold medal in the end.
“I’d like to obviously win as many of the World Series as we can as a team. Personally, I want to play my best footy. I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been.
“Obviously being a kicker, restarts are a big thing so giving my girls the best chance to get the ball back.
“Obviously not talking about the gold medal but that’s the big end result.”
IRB 7s CURCUIT;
Hopefully the IRB WR 7s rugby circuit RE imagine their format even more and change the way they format their games very soon, so all the top teams play each other often. Otherwise why watch the 7s IRB rugby circuit when it’s not a real competition.
This new IRB format is a nonsense format and is much worse than old IRBs formatted circuit, where no teams form counts until the last round. Like having 40 odd practice games. As none of the six first rounds games really count for anything as only the top eight teams make the final anyway, which will mean the top for teams could come 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th in the IRBs 7s circuits FINAL round.
The old IRB ladder system was much better ranking system that found the most consistent team as the IRB’s FINALIST!
Especially when the past IRBS 7s format usually meant that only the top teams could win this bias tournament, which makes the IRB 7s circuit very boring!
Presently the IRB champions aren’t the real champions as a team of champions beats a big pool of evenly ranked teams at every IRB circuit, that aren't necessarily the teams that make final. Making the comp worth watching because presently winning on the IRB circuit depends on who you play, and even those games are all meaningless until the last round. Making the game a shame not a game!
By having all of their IRB 7s series top 12 teams put in TWO pools of six teams, ranked in each pool from the previous IRB sevens ladder standings. POOL ONE 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11: POOL TWO 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12:
Would create a real competition as then all the IRB circuit teams would regularly play each other. Then have all the teams by rank from each pool play the other pools teams by rank. Meaning Pool A’s ranked teams would play Pool B’s teams by rank, all the way down to the 6th ranked team in both Pools.
Ie Pool A 1st versus Pool B 1st, Pool A 2nd versus Pool B 2nd, 3rd versus 3rd – 4th versus 4th -5th versus 5th – 6th versus 6th. Which means each team would play six games each to get ranked correctly. Which would be great spectator wise. Which is 66 odd competitive games spread over two/three days.
Or 132 games in the men’s and women’s divisions held over 2/3 days, which should be accomplishable. With 14 manned squads for nutrition and two or three rugby fields at each location?
And by having the bottom four teams after the IRB circuit having to challenge the top two teams from the challenging series. Would create a pool of 6 teams playing in a round robin or three to make the top four as core teams. To RE merge with the IRBs top 8 IRB teams for the next years IRB circuit. Giving the new challenging teams ‘time’ to develop their game!
They also need to evolve the rules of the game to speed the game up a heap to save time to score more tries, the games have become predictable and boring!
Making the 7s IRB circuit very good to watch that would eventually pay for itself, ‘you’d think!
MENS POOLS:
POOL ONE;-----------------POOL TWO;
1st NEW ZEALAND------------------2nd ARGENTINA
3rd FRANCE---------------------------4th FIJI 5th AUSTRALIA-----------------------6th SAMOA
7th SOUTH AFRICA------------------8th IRELAND 9th USA---------------------------------10th GREAT BRITIAN
11th SPAIN----------------------------12th CANADA
WOMEN’S POOLS
POOL ONE;-----------------POOL TWO;
1st NEW ZEALAND------------------2nd AUSTRALIA 3rd USA--------------------------------4th FRANCE
5th IRELAND-------------------------6th FIJI
7th GREAT BRTIAN-----------------8th JAPAN
9th CANADA-------------------------10th SPAIN 11th BRAZIL-------------------------12TH CHINA
By Adopting these five 7s rugby ELVS would mean all the squads on the 7s rugby IRB circuit could win a tournament or two. And would stop the IRB circuit’s predictable boring outcomes?
Who wants to watch a one-sided comp where many squads can’t win it because of its rules? What are ELVs for. These rules would speed the game up and improve its spectacle dramatically. In the order they’re in?
The IRB sevens squads need to have 14 in their squads to have a seven manned bench to help rehydrate the team if these five 7s EVLs were used?
1/ Seven points awarded for a try under the posts, would save a lot of time, to get more tries.
2/ Use the drop goal-line drop-out. Which should already be a law as it’s very hard in sevens rugby to hold a player up over the goal-line, and that type of defence deserves a break. To get to kick the ball away from their goal-line!
3/ All conversions to be taken by the person who scored the try, even if it’s a forward because a scrubbed conversion by a forward would create plenty of time for an extra try or six. Making it far easier to get six quick unconverted tries to win, than to get 4 converted tries to ‘WIN’ a game.
4/ Having one-minute yellow cards for all deliberate knocks-ons and for some cynical game momentum changing fouls, that stops a try from being scored. Would suit any team as having two-minute ‘yellow cards’ is far too long and destroys the games spectacle.
5/ Having two-minute replacement red cards” for dangerous play, and put that player on TMO ‘RE view for a game or for a few game suspensions.