World Sevens Series

The 13-man squad travelled to Hong Kong last weekend ahead of the tournament, which starts on  Friday. The winner of the competition will gain a place in next season’s World Rugby Series.

Captain Billy Dardis, Ian Fitzpatrick, Hugo Keenan, Terry Kennedy, Harry McNulty, Bryan Mollen, John O’Donnell and Mark Roche all ran out at Hong Kong Stadium last year, while Foster Horan was the 13th man.

Now in Hong Kong for the first time are Jordan Conroy, Adam Leavy, Mick McGrath and Greg O’Shea.

The top four placed teams in the current men's and women's World Series will earn automatic Olympic qualification, joining hosts Japan in the final draw in July next year at Ajinomoto Stadium.

New Zealand and Fiji are currently 2nd and 3rd respectively in the men's series standings, while New Zealand and Australia are ranked 1st and 4th in the women's competition.

And, according to Holland, that is not a bad thing for two reasons: the best players possible are required for Olympic success, and secondly, competition for spots will only serve to help Australia’s current players by never letting them feel “safe".

"We haven’t got the results we wanted this year so it does open a little bit of a door up for some of those guys to come and give it a shot,” Holland said.

The Aussie men’s team head to Hong Kong this week, looking to win their first title at the iconic tournament since 1988.

Since Fiji won Olympic gold in August, champion coach Ben Ryan and a handful of players have departed the team.

Welshman Gareth Baber has been appointed head coach through to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but doesn't take the reins until January.

Despite a number of changes to the Fiji set-up only two new caps have been selected for the opening legs in Dubai and Cape Town.

Interim coach Naca Cawanibuka said expectations remain the same.