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AAP
Murray Wenzel

Levi back in 'perfect storm' for new rugby sevens era

Maddison Levi will make a welcome return to the Australian sevens outfit in Hong Kong. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS)

Tim Walsh is calling it the "perfect storm" and leaning on ancient Chinese wisdom as a new-look Australian sevens outfit welcomes Maddison Levi back from injury in Hong Kong.

The try-scoring whiz missed the Vancouver world series leg with a thumb injury and, along with Sariah Paki (calf), will be a handy inclusion next week.

Australia are missing trailblazer Charlotte Caslick, who is prioritising the 15-a-side game with the Queensland Reds for the rest of this year.

Demi Hayes had surgery on a fractured hand suffered in the lead-up to Vancouver and will miss both the Hong Kong and Singapore events.

Two-try Perth hero Heidi Dennis has also been ruled out of the trip with a knee injury, while Bienne Terita will follow Caslick into Super Rugby Women's with the ACT Brumbies once she recovers from a hamstring injury.

Amahli Hala is set to become the side's fifth debutant this season.

Games will be played at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium, built on Kowloon Bay and custom-made for rugby sevens.

"We are fielding our youngest team in our history, our least number of total caps since 2015, and have had our most disruptive preparation ever," Walsh said.

Tim Walsh
Tim Walsh is leaning on ancient Chinese wisdom to help the new-look Australian sevens outfit. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

"A perfect storm for an Aussie sevens performance demonstrating character and resilience. "As we are heading into China, we are embracing ancient Chinese wisdom to prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead.

"'True gold does not fear the flame', is our mantra."

The women have won twice in four events and sit second, narrowly behind New Zealand, with two legs remaining. Men's coach Liam Barry has recalled teenager Hadley Tonga to his 13-man squad to replace the injured Michael Icely (knee).

They sit sixth with one podium - second in Perth - in four events.

"Hong Kong is the original and legacy event, and in a new stadium under the roof on day one we're pumped for the occasion," Barry said.

"Some of the players were quite crook in Vancouver; we had a few boys get off their beds to play, so it was a fair effort, and I thought we played better in Vancouver than we did in Perth." The men will play New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay in pool games from next Friday, while the women have been matched with Spain, Canada and Japan.

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN: Piper Simons, Amahli Hala, Faith Nathan, Mackenzie Davis, Teagan Levi, Tia Hinds, Isabella Nasser (c), Maddison Levi, Bridget Clark, Kahli Henwood, Ruby Nicholas, Kiiahla Duff, Sariah Paki

AUSTRALIAN MEN: Henry Hutchison (c), Ben Dowling, Henry Paterson (c), Matt Gonzalez, Ben Dalton, Maurice Longbottom, Jayden Blake, James Turner, Sid Harvey, Aden Ekanayake, Hayden Sargeant, Josh Turner, Hadley Tonga

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