Australia could be in for a double delight at the Perth Rugby Sevens, with try-scoring machine Maddison Levi powering the women into the semi-finals, and the men also making the final four with an upset win over Olympic champions France.
The Australian women crushed China (31-7) and Spain (43-0) on Friday, and followed up with a 40-5 win over France on Saturday in their final pool match.
Levi had scored a hat-trick against Spain, and delivered another triple dose of pain against France with tries in the first, fifth and ninth minutes.
The 2024 world sevens player of the year was at it again in the quarter-final against Japan, scoring two tries in the first half of the 35-0 win at HBF Park.
Australia will face Canada in a semi-final on Sunday, with the winners to take on either France or New Zealand in the final.
Sunday's match will give Australia the chance to taste some revenge after being knocked out by Canada in the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics.
The Australian men will face South Africa in a blockbuster semi-final on Sunday, but their path to the last-four was by no means straightforward.
The hosts, who lost narrowly to Argentina and South Africa on Friday, needed to beat the US by at least five points in Saturday's final pool match to have any hope of reaching the quarter-finals.
Australia led the US by just two points when the final siren sounded, but James Turner was able to cross after that to secure the 19-12 win.
Then in the quarter-final against France, Australia trailed 12-10 with four minutes remaining.
Ben Dowling catapulted Australia back into the lead when he picked up the ball from a tackle and raced to the line.
And when speedster Maurice Longbottom found a gap to score with one minute remaining, it secured a 24-12 win and passage to the semi-finals.
South Africa crushed ladder leaders Fiji 19-0 in their quarter-final to send an ominous warning to Australia.
The winners of that semi-final will take on either Spain or Argentina in the decider.
Regardless of whether Australia beat South Africa on Sunday, the tournament in Perth will be their best result of the season following disappointing results in Dubai (seventh) and Cape Town (ninth).
"Crazy," Longbottom said after Australia's upset win over France.
"After yesterday's close games and just coming up short, we knew we weren't far away.
"We just had to dig a bit deeper, fine-tune a few things and then go from there.
"Today we were lucky enough to get a couple of good results, which is going to bounce us into tomorrow.
"We had a rough start (to the tournament) and we're really starting to find our straps now."
