Game changers: women’s sevens stars who have bridged sporting divide

Code switching has long been a feature of the game of rugby. Big names over the years have plied their craft in both union and league. Since carving out its own space in the world, the sevens format has added a third cross-code dimension. 

There is a bit of history of athletes from other sports coming to men’s sevens. The most successful converts have come from the USA, where Carlin Isles and Perry Baker made the true sporting change up from athletics and American Football respectively. 

All sorts of switchers have parachuted into sevens rugby at various times, from Sonny Bill Williams in 2016 to Antoine Dupont last year. 

More recently Nathan Lawson left Australian men’s sevens squad to join rugby league side St George Illawarra Dragons. Time will tell how the Aussie men fare on the HSBC SVNS Series without him this season but his sevens expertise will serve him well in the NRL.

But which women have left sporting switch scorch marks on the turf of sevens history? 

One of the more unusual examples is Alev Kelter who excelled at ice hockey at college in Wisconsin playing ice hockey. It was only after she missed out on the Sochi Winter Olympics that she took her first steps into sevens.

A sport that provides a more obvious sevens springboard is Gaelic football. Due to the format of the game, it might be one of the best feeder sports you could envisage. The Ireland women’s programme have made good use of it and we’ve seen household names such as former captain Lucy Rock (Wicklow) and Stacey Flood (Dublin) put their GAA backgrounds to good use on the sevens field.

Drawing a parallel to Gaelic football but travelling around the world to do it, we land in Australia. One of the biggest current stars of the game and current holder of the Player of Year award, Maddison Levi, honed her athletic skills in Australian Rules Football before making the sevens world a better place.

There is also a precedent for going the other way. Because sevens has largely paved the way in women’s rugby, there is now a familiar story of XVs or rugby league teams bidding for the hot property, staking a claim for another sunshine-soaked sevens talent.

The super successful stars of the Australian and New Zealand teams have tended to be the most agile in terms of switching out. Blazing a trail was Gayle Broughton who joined the Parramatta Eels NRLW side in 2022 and is now with Brisbane Broncos. 

And with a Kiwi Ferns international cap and 13 club appearances with St George Illawarra Dragons, Tyla King has been a recent success story. 

Michaela Blyde will follow in her footsteps and take her try scoring prowess to the NRLW with the NZ Warriors. But fear not, we should get to see her making her customary regular contributions to the HSBC SVNS highlights reel for the rest of this season.

Having meandered through the old news of multisporters and code jumpers it’s now time to look ahead. The shiniest object on the horizon of women’s rugby right now is Rugby World Cup 2025. And as we head Down Under to Perth for the sunniest of all the HSBC SVNS stops, Australia’s women’s squad will be seeking a home victory. 

But several players have are staking a claim on a RWC spot in England later this year

Of the team set to take the field in Perth this weekend, Teagan and Maddison Levi, Charlotte Caslick, Bella Nasser, Khali Henwood, Demi Hayes and Tia Hinds are all linked with Super Rugby Women’s clubs. 

This deliberate attempt to position themselves in contention for the World Cup later this year could lend a very sevens look to the spine of the Wallaroos come August. 

In fact, after Perth, HSBC SVNS Series fans might want to keep a close eye on the Super Rugby scene as we could see some big sevens names running out across the Queensland Reds and the Brumbies sides.

And if this year’s Rugby World Cup is to feature the best women’s rugby players in the world then it needs to have sevens players there. 

Other teams who are sure to benefit include USA, who have Kelter (Loughborough) and a certain Ilona Maher (Bristol) playing in Premiership Women’s Rugby in preparation. 

Nicole Heavirland is still in the sevens fray with USA, but has an eye on joining her Olympic pals for this summer’s tournament. 

Ireland have long maintained close links between their 7s and 15-a-side programmes. Erin King took the World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year award last year and is continuing her journey towards RWC 2025 after years of sevens. And Eve Higgins, who picked up her 50th sevens cap in Cape Town in December, is another who has shown she can play 15s to a suitably high standard. 

Looking to defend their XVs title, which Black Ferns Sevens players will bolster their crop? Stacey Waaka has done it all in rugby: Sevens Olympic Gold, XVs World Cup winner and most recently a rugby league run with the Brisbane Broncos. 

She came back from injury at the 2025 Coral Coast 7s, so could we see the smiling assassin back to break English hearts at home in August?

So to those curious about what the sevens stars will take across to their new lands I say “buckle up, you’re in for a treat!”. It is too early to know who will make their national squads for Rugby World Cup 2025 in England but I expect there will be fans from around the globe who might be watching the HSBC SVNS in Perth with a bit more interest to see just how much better their XVs team is about to get.

There are some brilliant players taking steps through the rugby terminus, transferring their god-given talents between codes. And rugby is better for it.