As deftly as they smoked defenders to cruise into the Sydney Sevens quarter finals, Australia's Olympic champion women's team will have to side step a change of field and a sell-out crowd to keep their home tournament hopes alive at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
The defending world series champions battled a rare case of the first-touch fumbles in their first world series match on home soil on Friday but did enough to set up a quarter-final re-match with Fiji on Saturday morning.
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Day two will bring two big, new challenges for Australia's golden girls; a capacity crowd and carnival atmosphere that will engulf the Moore Park precinct, and a different field. The women's quarter finals will be played on Kippax Field, a training ground across the road, with room for just 1,000 spectators.
Australian coach Tim Walsh said both changes – in atmosphere and scale – would be twists his players would have to navigate.
![Australia's Ellia Green crosses for a try to seal her comeback after major shoulder surgey.](/web/20170205150020im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/4/y/5/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu4xj7.png/1486131314462.jpg)
"We pride ourselves on adapting to situations, it's one of our mantras in the team, but time will tell," Walsh said.
"We're fully aware we're out the back there so we're prepared for it. If we get our mental preparation right I think things will go our way, but we have to really focus on it minute by minute and hope that we can walk away without any regret."
The team are based at Narrabeen on the northern beaches but took advantage of the first ever women's world series leg on Australian soil – and in Sydney no less – by training on Kippax last week and once with the Waratahs last month.
Still, the volume, colour, traffic and pressure will all ratchet up on Saturday, presenting new challenges for the home town favourites.
![Try time: Ellia Green touches down against Ireland.](/web/20170205150020im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/5/a/d/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu4xj7.png/1486201996024.jpg)
"We played against Ireland here last year but that was an exhibition game and half the audience didn't even know that we were playing, or who they were," Walsh said.
"Now they've come back [to Sydney] as world series champions and gold medallists so there is more buzz around them. But in the past, in every pressure situation the players have been under, they seem to have handled it really well."
Friday saw speedster Ellia Green make a rousing comeback to competition, scoring three tries in as many pool games and adding some much-needed quality the team was lacking in the opening world series leg in Dubai.
Emilee Cherry and Shannon Parry were strong for the home side, while Blacktown little athletics product Mahalia Murphy announced her arrival among the team's top finishers, bagging a double against Brazil and showing dauntless grit in contact.
Green admitted she "went to the bathroom about eight times" before running out for Australia's first pool game. It was her first game back from shoulder surgery after the Rio Olympics and the Australian women made it as comfortable as possible for her with a 24-7 win.
"It was good to get the first one out, I think I went to the toilet about eight times before I ran on the field," Green said.
"Very good to get the butterflies and the nerves out and get the first one out of the way.
"For the team it wasn't our best performance, our first game is usually pretty scrappy, but hopefully our next two will pick up."
New Zealand, Canada and a vastly-improved USA loom as the Australians' main rivals, while France sent thrills through a small crowd, leading the Black Ferns at half time in their pool game. The Olympic silver medallists eventually overcame, taking the match 14-12 to also book a clash with France in the quarter finals.
Elsewhere in the knockout rounds, Ireland will play the United States and Russia will face Canada. England missed the cut for Cup honours.
Day two of action at Allianz also sees the Australian men take on the Kiwis at 11.42am AEDT on the main stadium. Rio gold medallists and crowd favourites Fiji play Samoa at 10.36am AEDT, while tournament front runners South Africa kick off their campaign against Japan.