Maddi Levi is only embarking on her fourth year of sevens rugby.

And she is turning heads at a serious rate of knots.

But without her younger sister Teagan, who plays alongside her in the sevens set-up, it’s likely that things would be a fair bit different.

“It’s funny because, growing up through sporting teams, she was kind of more of an inspiration for me,” Levi told ABC Sport Daily.

“I say it all the time and it is a little bit cliché, but when we first started out, nine times out of 10 in most sports, she used to succeed and pick them up really easy and I used to be quite gumby, so it took me a lot to get into them.

“But having her lead the way kind of helped me and I guess that’s the same with all the sports we’ve done.

It’s not only by being inspirational that the Levi sisters have combined to such great effect.

Maddi says 21-year-old Teagan, who has made 97 SVNS Series appearances for Australia, is essential to her wellbeing during the rigours of the global tour.

“Nothing really changes. We still fight like cat and dog on tour,” Levi said with a laugh.

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“But I guess we always say it’s like travelling with a piece of home.

“For someone like me, I put so much pressure on myself and get real nervous when I play.

“Even last week when we were running out at Cape Town, I remember going to her room before the tournament started and just bursting into tears.

“Knowing that she’s always there and she knows how to calm me and she knows the right things to do, it’s really good to just travel with her and just have her there.”

The fact that Levi still feels these doubts despite everything she’s achieved, perhaps serves as a good reminder she is still just 22 years old and relatively new to the demands of being a full-time athlete.

Not that she hasn’t taken to her new-found status as the hottest property in rugby with aplomb.

The numbers revealing her achievements are staggering.

At this year’s SVNS series opener in Dubai, Levi scored 15 tries in six games. That’s a new single-tournament record.

She added six more in Cape Town, when the Australians finished fourth.

In total last season, she scored a whopping 69 tries as the Aussie women claimed the overall prize, an all-time season record for men or women.

The Paris Olympics was ultimately a heartbreaking disappointment for the Australian women, but Levi still scored 14 tries in the tournament — another record.

Overall, she has scored 171 tries in 120 matches in what is just her fourth season in the sport.

For context, that’s nine fewer career tries than Australia’s record try scorer Charlotte Casslick, having played 198 fewer matches.

New Zealand legend Portia Woodman, who had held the single-tournament record of 14, scored 256 tries in her career — and must now feel that record is looking increasingly vulnerable.

But Levi couldn’t do it without her sister.

“I think she kind of lets me feel what I’m feeling,” Levi said of Teagan.

“She calls me stupid a lot of the times and also kind of lets me know my potential.

“But it’s also just having an ear to listen to and it’s probably one of the only times I get a hug from her, so I must know that she really cares if she’s hugging me in those times.

“But, yeah, kind of just talking me out of it and telling me that if I just do the basics first, then I’m unstoppable, and just talking myself out of putting all that pressure on myself.”

“Unstoppable” is a prescient term, given Levi’s recent performances.

Levi’s 183-centimetre-tall frame cuts an imposing figure when she is tearing down the pitch in full flight, the beaming smile she liberally deploys away from competitive action entirely absent when she has her game face on.

Her athleticism has always been evident — a by-product of her willingness to try anything to improve herself, a trait she still exhibits today as she casts an inquiring eye towards the NRLW competition.

That physical prowess proved too tempting a lure to refuse for the AFLW’s Gold Coast Suns, for whom Levi played eight matches in the 2021 AFLW season after breaking records at the AFLW combine for the running vertical jump (left foot) and the 20m sprint.

The AFLW was never her calling, though.

Later that year, Levi was called up to the Aussie Sevens team to play at the Tokyo Olympics aged just 19 — and despite some early doubts, she hasn’t looked back since.

“It was honestly the best experience I’ve ever had,” Levi said about the COVID-hit Tokyo Games.

“I obviously wanted to continue that, but I remember sitting with Mum and Dad just beside myself in tears.

“I look back at it now and we laugh at how funny the decision was.

“I’m travelling the world now at 22, I’ve been to so many countries with my sister, but I think when you put so much blood, sweat and tears into both sports [it is hard choosing one].

“No matter what you’re doing, if I’m playing Gold Coast Suns footy or if I’m travelling the world, you want to succeed in both.

“So it was a difficult decision at the time but, looking back, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”

Her staggering try-scoring record has prompted some of the sport’s biggest names to wax lyrical about her abilities.

“A genuine cheat code,” was how Wallabies great Matt Giteau described her on social media platform X this weekend, while noted international try scorer across both codes of rugby, Lote Tuqiri, called her a “weapon” in the recent past.

The official SVNS Series account went with “inevitable”.

Which is fair enough: Levi’s 80-yard intercept try to win the Dubai final against New Zealand ensured she scored in each of the six matches the Aussies played in the desert.

This all came a week after Levi was named the best sevens player in the world at the World Rugby awards alongside French superstar Antoine Dupont.

Dupont, after spending a year in sevens to win Olympic gold for France in Paris, is now back in the 15-a-side form of the game, captaining France to impressive wins over New Zealand and Argentina.

Does a similar pathway beckon for Levi?

“I think the growth with 15s is exciting,” she said.

“To play a World Cup next year, the attraction is getting so much bigger.

“I think to showcase my skills in both sports will be really good, but obviously the main thing is just getting some sort of 15s experience and going from there.”

Cheslin Kolbe, Semi Radradra, Rieko Ioane are all wingers who have excelled in sevens before transitioning to 15s. So were Woodman and Sharni Smale (nee Williams), although Williams played in the centres for the Wallaroos.

There’s no reason why Levi could not be another successful convert.

“I think it takes quite an athlete to be able to handle sevens — the fitness levels and just covering so much space,” Levi said.

“I think it’s probably more of a physical game, but being a backline player, I’ll probably still play somewhere in the backs in 15s, so hopefully there’s still a few mismatches.

“I think, for me, it’s pretty much the same job — just catching the ball and trying to find space to get to the line.”