Maurice Longbottom

They call Maurice Longbottom ‘The Magician’ after his Sevens debut in 2017 featured a long, swerving, evading run to the try line that became a social media sensation.

He is a former South Sydney Rabbitohs junior and although he was told he was “too small” for the rigours of elite rugby league, he has consistently proven the doubters wrong.

In 2018, Maurice was a member of the Australian Sevens squad that placed fifth at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and also played in the Rugby Sevens World Cup in San Francisco that year.

Maurice is also a strong force in the 15-a-side game, playing with Randwick Rugby Club in Sydney’s 2020 Shute Shield competition.

At the end of the 2020 season, he re-signed with the Sevens program in anticipation of the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Maurice made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games and showed his class in the group stage of the tournament, scoring once and holding a 100 per cent conversion success rate in Australia's 42-5 victory over South Korea, propelling the Aussies to the knockout stage of the tournament.

Despite falling short in the quarter-finals, losing 19-0 to Fiji, Maurice amassed 28 points over the course of the tournament. This was the most of any Australian player at the Games and the squad finished seventh overall after a 26-7 victory over Canada.

The fleet-footed playmaker was among the try-scorers at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, where Australia finished fourth, losing to New Zealand in the play-off for bronze. He also played in the team that claimed their first World Rugby Sevens Series title in 2021-22, before finishing fourth at the Sevens World Cup in Cape Town.

Maurice, who continues to star in the World Rugby Sevens Series, is a carpenter by trade, leaving school after Year 10 to take up an apprenticeship.

A proud Dharawal man, he says his greatest ambition is to be a good role model for the next generation of Indigenous athletes.

At Paris 2024 Maurice played a part in the men's rugby sevens team's best-ever finish at an Olympic Games.

After going undefeated against Samoa (21-14), Kenya (21-7) and Argentina (22-14) in the pool stage they booked a spot in the semi-finals with an 18-0 shutout of the USA. The Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Fiji side awaited in the quarter-finals, where the Aussie's run was halted with a 7-31 loss.

There was another chance at a medal in the battle for bronze against South Africa hours later, with South Africa winning 26-19 to put Australia in fourth place.