Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt turned to a HSBC SVNS Series flyer ahead of the first Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks at Eden Park, phoning James Turner last month and saying the words every aspiring Wallaby dreams of hearing: “You’re in.”
Turner has been among the standouts for the Australia Sevens side for four seasons, including a career-best campaign in 2024/25. On Friday night, Rugby Australia recognised Turner as the Australia Men’s Sevens Player of the Year – taking home the Shawn Mackay Award.
After walking on the stage at Sydney’s Town Hall to collect the award, Turner opened up about the call from Schmidt. Turner was called into the national squad before a Test against the All Blacks at their fortress, explaining the Wallabies “had a couple injures and I was about eighth in line.”
Fellow Paris Olympian Corey Toole ended up starting on one wing, with Harry Potter on the other, and Filipo Daugunu providing cover off the bench. Max Jorgensen shifted to fullback for that Test in Auckland, where the Wallabies trailed by just two with 10 minutes to play.
Turner didn’t debut in Wallaby gold but the 27-year-old described the experience as “pretty crazy”, having only ever played three Super Rugby matches for the Waratahs, and the last of those was on February 25 2022.
“I just got a call one day after training, after getting absolutely flogged by Mick Stephen,” Turner told RugbyPass and Rugby.com.au at the 2025 Rugby Australia Awards.
“[Schmidt] just said, ‘hey mate, can you come to Auckland to help the boys train?’ I was like, ‘oh yeah, no worries.’ He goes, ‘[assistant team manager] Will Stuart will be in contact, you’re in Wallabies camp.’
“I knew a couple of the boys from the Waratahs so it’s good, they helped me out.
“I played a couple of Super games a couple of years ago, pretty forgettable game at Eden Park. I think I got three caps.”
Turner was nominated for the top individual sevens honour at the Rugby Australia Awards along with three-time Olympian Henry Hutchison and Henry Paterson. When that result was announced, Turner became the latest first-time recipient of the award.
It was the same story with the women’s Shawn Mackay Award, which went to speedster Faith Nathan after yet another strong season in gold. Nathan received the honour ahead of team captain Isabella Nasser and try-scoring machine Maddison Levi.
The 2025/26 SVNS Series season is about one month away, with the season-opener in Dubai taking place on November 29-30. Cape Town, Singapore, Australia, Vancouver, USA will also host regular season events.
As part of the new-look Series format, the title will be decided over three World Championship events, starting in Hong Kong on April 17-19. Valladolid and Bordeaux are new stops on the circuit. Teams are deep into pre-season as they ready themselves for the new campaign.
“Playing sevens, you’re constantly running 10 [kilometres] a day, getting flogged but I guess we love it, we’re a bit sick in the head,” Turner said.
“I love it, I love the boys and I’ll happily run 10 [kilometres] with them every day.
“I think we’re in a really good spot compared to last year. We’ve got a really good, gelled group, really good core group that’s carried on from last year. I think we’re on to bigger and better things.
“We’re sort of a bit of a roller-coaster last year because we had a bit of inexperience, but coming into this year, I think the boys are flying. This is my fourth year and it’s getting pretty hard and training because all the boys are quite good.”