The surprising time the first Aussies will be in action at the Olympic Games

The highly-anticipated opening ceremony of the Olympic Games gets under way in the early hours of Saturday morning in Australia, but the first Aussies will be in action long before the grand event in Paris.

Many Australians will stay awake through the night for the upcoming two-week bonanza as the nation's best prospects aim to make history in Europe.

And due to a scheduling headache, some events will actually take place before the opening ceremony, with Australia's rugby sevens team the first to get their Olympic adventure started.

The men's team take on Samoa in their Pool B clash at 23:30AEST, and must also play Argentina and Kenya. The quarter finals, semi finals and final awaits the Aussies should they perform well in Paris.

It is the first time the sevens event will take place before the opening ceremony, and the Guardian explains that the reason for this is to allow the players adequate time to rest between matches.

There will also be big names involved including France superstar Antoine Dupont, who is aiming to get the home nation's gold medal rush off to a strong start.

Meanwhile, the women get their sevens journey underway at midnight on Monday 29 July, and are aiming to go one better than their Tokyo heartbreak three years ago.

And they are prepared to do it the hard way, even if it means  taking on arch-rivals New Zealand in the final.

'We've obviously been neck and neck with New Zealand at the top for the whole time and I think we're pretty comfortable there,' said Caslick.

Australia's stars struck gold for the first time at the Rio Games in 2016, beating the Kiwis in a nail-biting final.

But there was despair in 2021 when they finished out of the medals in fifth place.

Australia were eliminated by Fiji in the quarter-finals, with NZ seizing the opportunity to claim gold.

But Caslick maintains preparations have gone much smoother this time around after their campaign was hampered by COVID then.

'I feel like we're in a much better place than we were physically before Tokyo,' she said.

'We've beaten them (NZ) before so we know how to play them, and we know how to beat them. I think we just have to be brave and go out there and throw everything at them.

'At this stage, we probably won't cross with them until a grand final, so if everything goes to plan for both of us, I'm hoping that we will meet.'