An international Aboriginal rugby sevens outfit has walked away full of belief for the future after accepting praise from the Australian national sevens set-up and further support off current Indigenous Wallabies and former Lloydies old boys amid the celebrations of a momentous Test victory.

The Lloyd McDermott Development Rugby Team, which was established by and in the name of Australia's pioneering Indigenous Test rugby union player, recently came close to claiming the world's second oldest and one of the most prestigious sevens tournaments in Asia.

Matt Sonter, assistant coach to former Wallabies-capped playmaker Lloyd Walker, felt far from disappointed to finish third at the Singapore Cricket Club International Rugby Sevens.

Lloydies lost its Ablitt Cup semi-final this year after bowing out a year earlier in the Cup final.

"We've got some of the top prospects in the country playing for us," Sonter said.

"What we've got is a real genuine pathway (for Aboriginal players).

"Leading into the camp, we had six of our boys go into the Aussie sevens camp."

Sonter said the underlining result was before Lloydies played in Singapore where "it all sort of feeds into itself".

Gage Phillips, Kieran Mundine, Deon Evans, Ky Willoughby, and brothers BJ Oates and Kye Oates were all invited to attend a timely tryout in Lennox Head with the current 27 Australian sevens' squad members, coaches and staff.

The occasion was the first inclusion of Lloydies stars with the Australian sevens program, who were regrouping after finishing fourth at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"These boys are all vying for contracts, putting their names up in lights," Sonter said.

"We've got to find the right opportunities around the world for them, so they can get seen at the highest level.

"To be honest, what those boys learned is that they're good enough to actually be there and compete.

"The coaching staff and the Australian sevens players were really accommodating and worked above and beyond for them."

On the back of a thrilling 43-38 Test victory against England, Sonter said hearing from Andy Muirhead and Test winger Dylan Pietsch on the Wallabies' Grand Slam tour of the Home Nations was "motivating" ahead of the knockout day of the tournament.

Muirhead, who is also a Lloyd McDermott director with Sonter, is at the top of an Aboriginal-owned company Yara that sponsored the trip for Lloydies' amateur players.

"To have elite players like Andy Muirhead giving money back in, just giving back, to help us grow it – it's just a massive thing," Sonter said.

"Andy came through the Brumbies, but before that he came through Lloydies and without Lloydies, he just wouldn't be playing for Australia A on tour and for the Brumbies."

Lloydies had earlier collected comprehensive victories over the Kumuri outfit of Japan, 53-0, and hosts Singapore CC, 54-0 in atrocious conditions, only finding hardened competition in the pool group stage against Sydney metropolitan club entrant, Briars, in the resilient 17-5 win.

The quarter-final triumph against Japanese side Tamariva, 21-12, did not prepare Lloydies for an encounter with Royal Town Warriors, registered from Malaysia.

Sonter revealed the full story behind a side he called "mercenaries", there to collect the prizemoney.

"We actually copped a Fijian-slash-New Zealand side in the semi-final when there had been some dreadful rain," he said.

"So, really, we had a good tournament to come third because we're always up in the big-time strata.

"But considering the torrential rain, we were outstanding.

"They were bigger boys and we play the game fast, but they closed us down a bit and (the torrential rain) really bogged us down."

The scoreline read a 27-17 loss, however Sonter said experiences against players from historically the two most successful nationalities in the short form of the rugby code can only benefit Lloydies rising stars.

"It was still a testament to the kids, and when I say kids, I think our eldest bloke was 24," he said.

"This year there was the majority of the same boys in (from last year) and around our system of development, we were only just a little bit older.

"That Fijian-Kiwi side that beat us in the semi-final, they're a bit more of a mercenary style of players – they're really guns for hire.

"Their players were all in their mid-20s, and we had three under 20 and another three blokes that were 20."

The 2023 winners, Daveta from Fiji, who took out the final last year over Lloydies, would go on to snare back-to-back titles against Royal Town Warriors 12 months on.

Phillips and the Oates brothers, who all play in the New South Wales and Queensland first-grade premier competitions away from Lloydies' regular sevens tournaments, proved to be the standout First Nations players.

Last year in Singapore, the teenage Phillips, who was barely out of school, was named the player of the tournament in the leading competition among the five trophies handed out across divisions to accommodate teams of all abilities from across the world.

"For the last four or five years, he's been the best young Aboriginal player in the country – he's just not contracted yet (professionally)," Sonter said of Phillips.

"He went into the Aussie Sevens camp and he's knocking on the door there.

"Professional sport is not as easy as we all think – it's not just turn up, and it all happens.

"He's doing his best playing the game, so fingers crossed that it'll happen because he's just such a good kid."