Watch the 2025-2026 HSBC SVNS Series live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nFor Ashby, the turnaround from injury to captaincy completes a whirlwind period for the Sevens star, having been sidelined since 2024’s Singapore Sevens, enduring a long and difficult recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the time away has given her perspective on her place in rugby, and she\u2019s excited to rip into the new season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite challenging,\u201d Ashby said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was rugby, rugby, rugby. And then I did my ACL in that game and then everything came to a stop before [the] Olympics so it was a bit of a whirlwind for me, but I had my family and the support of all the coaching staff and my teammates here.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Playing Sevens], it’s something you should cherish. So, let alone doing that and getting to captain the girls and lead them out onto the field, I reckon it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had within my rugby career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does make me extremely proud, especially getting to do it alongside Bella Nasser.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had an amazing year last year doing it on her own with the girls, and they had an amazing season. So I think going into Dubai, I’m quite thankful that I have her co-captaining alongside me. I think it’ll be an experience for the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashby will have to fight hard to maintain her starting position, with the injury toll sustained last year opening the door for a new generation of players who made their mark last year.<\/p>\n
The result is a perfect storm, with the Aussies fielding strong depth in the side, with front-line stars returning and the new class of rising talent pushing them for starting positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the competition in the team has risen in a healthy way\u2026 we’re getting the best out of one another and at the end of the day we all want to make the team,\u201d Ashby added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a very healthy, but competitive environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDubai is probably one of our main tournaments that we always strive for, especially through pre-season. We pride ourselves on working hard and having a huge work ethic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had a good pre-season prep and I feel ready leading into Dubai\u2026 I’m just going to back us, always.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the men\u2019s squad, the addition of McFarland signals the growing depth in the men\u2019s game, with the 23-year-old having a massive 2025 in the Hospital Cup, before trialling well in recent weeks to be drafted into Liam Barry\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan impressed the coaching staff after recently trialling with the squad,\u201d Sevens National Performance Manager Scott Bowen said in an official statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brings a mix of speed and power and will complement the players around him throughout the upcoming season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Women’s team will get their Dubai campaign underway with pool matches against Japan, Canada and Great Britain, and will be looking to push for a sixth straight title at The Sevens Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Men’s will play Spain in the season opener before meeting New Zealand and Great Britain in their pool stages.<\/p>\n
DUBAI FIXTURES – HSBC SVNS World Series 2025\/2026<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIA WOMEN<\/p>\n
Saturday, November 29: Australia v Japan (6:42pm AEDT)Saturday, November 29: Australia v Canada (10:05pm AEDT)Sunday, November 30: Australia v Great Britain (1:11am AEDT)<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIA MEN<\/p>\n
Saturday, November 29: Australia v Spain (7:48pm AEDT)Saturday, November 29: Australia v New Zealand (10:54pm AEDT)Sunday, November 30: Australia v Great Britain (2:50am AEDT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madison Ashby has been unveiled as co-captain of the Women\u2019s side, sharing duties with Isabella Nasser.\u00a0 It comes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,125979,40283,760,85],"class_list":["post-294082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-mens-sevens","tag-australian-womens-sevens","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}