It was a weekend to remember for Sid Harvey as the Narrabri boy debuted for the Australian Men’s Sevens team during the opening tournament of the 2024/25 World Rugby SVNS Series in Dubai.
The 19-year-old former junior Blue Boar became the 421st player to pull on the green and gold jersey for the national side as his remarkable rise in the rugby arena reached a new height in the United Arab Emirates city.
In what was a special moment for a highly-respected Narrabri family, Harvey was presented his jersey by his father Denis in the lead-up to the event before making his debut on Saturday when the tournament kicked off.
The Aussie men’s team included several players who lined up in the sevens action at the inaugural Santos Festival of Rugby at Narrabri’s Dangar Park back in 2021, including Matthew Gonzalez, James Turner, Michael Icely and Hayden Sargeant.
They were placed into Pool A with South Africa, France and Kenya, and they went down 17-0 against the South Africans in their tournament opener and were in danger of missing out on a quarter-final spot when they lost their second match 14-10 against France.
Kenya had been beaten in their first match against France but downed South Africa in their second game, and Australia required a seven-point win against them in game three to end the day as one of two top-ranked third-placed teams among the three pools to progress to the final eight.
Harvey and his teammates were able to get the job done as they beat the Kenyans 31-14 to book a quarter-final date with the undefeated Pool B winners Argentina on Sunday.
The Aussies took a first-minute 5-0 lead in that knockout match before the Argentinians equalised with a try in the fifth. Australia then went ahead 10-5, but Argentina hit back with two tries, one of which saw them add the extra two points from the conversion, to have established a 17-10 advantage by the ninth minute.
The two sides crossed for a try each as Argentina went into the final two minutes with a 22-15 advantage, but the Aussies gave themselves a chance to equalise when Henry Paterson completed his hat-trick in the 14th minute.
However, they missed the conversion attempt and lost the contest 22-20, which put them into the seventh-place playoff as they narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot.
Australia met Great Britain in the seventh-place playoff match and got the job done 17-12. They had trailed 12-5 after six minutes before Aden Ekanayake, who had also debuted for Australia at the tournament, crossed to make it 12-10 in the eighth minute and James McGregor converted a 13th-minute Paterson try.
That win saw Australia finish the weekend ranked seventh.
Fiji and Spain met in the final after beating Argentina and New Zealand, respectively, in their semi-finals, and Fiji prevailed 19-5 in the big dance to win the first of the seven events on the world tour.
The Aussie women’s team went through the tournament undefeated to be crowned the Dubai tournament champions for the fifth consecutive year.
They cruised through Pool A with big wins against China (52-0), Fiji (42-7) and Ireland (24-5) before knocking off Canada 39-0 in their quarter-final and then Great Britain 35-7 in their semi-final.
That locked in a grand final spot against New Zealand, and the two rivals produced a classic in the big dance as the Australians prevailed 28-24.
That Aussie team featured several players who competed at the 2023 Santos Festival of Rugby women’s Next Gen Sevens Series at Narrabri’s Dangar Park, including Teagan Levi, Charlotte Caslick, Kiiahla Duff, Faith Nathan, Sariah Paki and Tia Hinds.
The second tournament of the 2024/25 World Rugby SVNS Series will be played this weekend in the South African city of Cape Town.
Harvey has been selected in the Aussie men’s squad and they have been placed into Pool B alongside Spain and Kenya, while the women’s team will feature in Pool A alongside Canada and Brazil.
This tournament will run four pools of three teams instead of the three pools of four used in Dubai.
The winners of each pool will go through to the semi-finals, runners-up in each pool will meet in a semi-finals series to play off for fifth, and the third-placed team in each pool will meet in a semi-finals series to play off for ninth.
The 2024/25 World Rugby SVNS series is being held across seven tournaments. The venues for the next six events are as follows:
Event two: Cape Town, South Africa – December 7-8 (DHL Stadium).
Event three: Perth, Australia – January 24-26 (HBF Park).
Event four: Vancouver, Canada – February 21-23 (BC Place).
Event five: Hong Kong – March 28-30 (Hong Kong Stadium).
Event six: Singapore – April 5-6 (National Stadium).
Event seven: Los Angeles, USA – May 3-4 (Dignity Health Sports Park).
