It didn’t take long for Maddison Levi to get a rugby test. When the 24-year-old traveled with the Wallaroos ahead of Laurie O’Reilly’s second match of the season against the Black Ferns in August, it was initially more of a fact-finding mission.
Levi had only ever known rugby sevens. Her gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Sevens World Cup are proof enough of that. But the game of 15-a-side is a bit foreign to her.
She joined the squad two months after helping out Australia Women’s sevens to HSBC SVNS World Championship with wins in Valladolid and Bordeaux.
In the end, Levi got 30 minutes off the bench in the 66-19 loss. At the time of her introduction, the Wallaroos were 52-7.
During those half hours on the Go Media Stadium turf, Levi looked comfortable. She beat two defenders and made 14 meters from three carries. She even got two wasted times.
“I said my main goal when I first went there was to get into the environment and just learn the XV because I’d never played a game before, let alone trained,” Levi said. RugbyPass.
“I said, I don’t want any pressure to play and I just wanted to use it as a training camp. Then, like me, I got two practices and said, ‘Is there still an opportunity to play? Because I think it would actually benefit me to go into the back end of the game and just see how I go.’
“I’m such a confident player trying to change the game, and I knew I could do something. With 20 minutes left and the game so far away, there was no pressure on me to turn the score around at the end. It was about the impact I could bring and bring.
“It was such a good learning experience and the girls helped me. Just to be able to play alongside some of the girls I watched in the XV jersey and for them to be able to help me, I couldn’t have asked for a better debut.”
The road to Levi making her test debut was about two years. Levi also signed for the Queensland Reds ahead of the 2025 Women’s Super Rugby season, only for a hand injury to scupper her hopes of making the Australian Women’s Rugby World Cup squad.
But timing was everything, and the August debut of the 15-a-side came largely because of calendar space.
With it being a rugby week in the off-season and about a week before her Ultimate Sevens duties start, the timing was perfect for her to try something new.
What those 30 minutes off the bench could lead to in the next three years remains to be seen. However, Levi has already made it clear that 15s is no longer just something she wants to learn on the side.
“Obviously I wanted to play in the last World Cup in England (last year),” Levy explained. “I ended up putting that goal aside and putting it off a little bit just so I could learn the game a lot more then. I didn’t want to put myself in an awkward position that wouldn’t benefit me in the end and probably hurt my confidence a little bit.”
“Also, I don’t want to put myself in the team knowing I wasn’t 100%, when there are people who train for four years for these monumental events. I don’t want to just earn my spot because of my career in a week.
“But when we sat down and looked at the timeline, we only thought about the crossover game New Zealand and Australia was such a perfect time. Even if I didn’t play, just to go there, learn from the girls, get some experience and then play against the second best in the world.”
The obvious question, then, is whether the 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup is part of her plans.
The Valaroos are targeting success at their home tournament, and significant changes have already been made to the women’s program.
Soon the national high performance sevens and XV teams will be living under the same roof at the new headquarters in Ballymore.
Former Australian women’s sevens head coach Tim Walsh has been appointed director of women’s high performance at Rugby Australia, with a role that includes overseeing a greater movement between the sevens and XV programs.
That type of cross has already been established elsewhere, with Black Ferns, Canada and USA among programs that used players in both formats.
Last year, Wallaroos record holder Maya Stewart spent time playing on the HSBC SVNS Series, while a number of Australian Women’s Sevens stars gained 15-a-side experience during the WXV Global Series. Olympic gold medalist Charlotte Caslick made her debut for the Wallaroos but was ultimately not selected for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
There is also the added attraction of playing in the best possible way and succeeding in front of the home crowd at the home tournament. Something Levi has done plenty of with the SVNS series dipping its toes in the waters of Sydney and Perth throughout its career.
Inspired by Australia’s success at the 2016 Olympics, the 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup – with LA28 at the center – could give Levi the opportunity to inspire others in the same way and help drive that growth.
“Playing for your country internationally is great, but also playing in Australia, that’s when you build momentum and build momentum for women’s sport,” she said.
“You look at when the girls won gold in Rio, how much they’ve progressed and the momentum with not only the girls but the boys joining the rugby sevens – I hope to have that with the way the XV is growing is something I’d love to be a part of.
“To be able to play in the World Cup on home soil is something I hope I can achieve. We have a good few years ahead of us with the Olympics in LA and then the World Cup in 2029. I’m really excited to be a part of that and hopefully just help grow rugby in Australia.”
A different kind in the off season
Levi is currently in the final stages of the inaugural Ultimate Sevens season. The three-stage season will conclude at the Gtech Community Stadium on Thursday, September 24.
Last week in Biarritz, Levi was named tournament MVP as her team, Pacific Current, triumphed in the women’s final against Clan Tartan. Pacific Current is now in first place in the women’s standings after two stages. He posted a stunning round of the Championship in West London.
The competition blends traditional rugby sevens with numerous variations of the law, creating something familiar but distinctly different. It also brought together some of the best players in the abbreviated format, giving Levi a chance to test himself against – and learn from – many of his usual SVNS series rivals.
For a player who has been a professional player since she was a teenager, these weeks offered a unique insight.
Fiji’s players showed her how they thrive in the absence of structure. Other teammates revealed that they were paid more to play in this tournament than they would have been to play for their country.
“In Australia we’re pretty lucky to be full-time athletes, but for some of these people to be able to travel the world and get paid doing something they love is something that’s really nice,” Levy said.
“I feel like this comp — this new format — is actually going to help build weeks and add depth. It’s probably the only time you can pick your opponent’s brain and ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ or ‘How can I do this to make myself better?’
“It’s only going to help build and build weeks and hopefully build a new fan base around the world, one continent at a time.”
Following the conclusion of the Ultimate Sevens, Levi will return to Australia and begin preparations for the 2026/27 SVNS Series season.
It’s a big year; Olympic qualification is underway and Australia will be looking to defend their World Cup crown. And Levi will have another goal: to find out how far he can take this new chapter in XV.