The unstoppable Maddison Levi, a powerhouse of the women's sevens game, has given Australia lift-off in the new season, scoring five tries to help them win three straight matches and power into the Dubai Sevens semi-finals.
In the opening tournament of the world series on Saturday, Australia's men also made the last-four of their tournament despite a dramatic 21-17 defeat to old rivals New Zealand.
Levi, recognised as perhaps the world's best women's sevens player, loves Dubai, having helped Australia win their fifth successive title there last year while she clocked up a record-breaking 15 tries over that weekend.
And the 23-year-old is well on the way to another spectacular, if not quite as prolific a tournament after scoring twice in both of their opening victories, a 31-7 rout of Japan and a tougher 24-17 win over Canada, before another score in the 55-0 stroll against Great Britain.
Her sister Teagan Levi, Faith Nathan and Bella Nasser also scored against the resilient Japanese while Maddison's second-half double gave the scoreline a slightly flattering look.
The 2024 world sevens player of the year also got them off to a flyer against Canada through a couple of first-half scores, before Nathan and Heidi Dennis made the game safe with tries after the break.
The GB match proved just too easy as they ran in nine tries, featuring doubles for Teagan Levi and Kaitlin Shave, as well as scores for Maddison Levi, Tia Hinds, Bienne Terita, Ruby Nicholas and Madison Ashby.
That's set up a semi-final date on Sunday against Fiji, while New Zealand play Japan in the other last-four encounter.
The men began promisingly with a hard-earned 14-7 win over last year's runners-up Spain, thanks to tries from returning star Dietrich Roache and exciting new boy Wallace Charlie.
But in the day's big match, they went 21-0 down to New Zealand, shipping three tries to their trans-Tasman rivals in the first half, to leave themselves with a second-half Everest to climb.
They almost got there too, with Henry Hutchison, Roache and Ben Dalton all crossing for tries to set up a fantastic finish before Dalton was held up by a remarkable last-ditch, try-saving tackle over the line by Kele Lasaqa with time up on the clock
That left Australia having to win their match against a GB team to secure their semi-final spot against France, and they did just that with a 26-17 win, thanks largely to three early tries in the space of two minutes from Charlie, Jayden Blake and Roache, before James McGregor also went over after the break.
