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Defensive masterclass powers Aussie women's sevens into Cape Town semis
By AAP
Australia's rugby sevens women keep going from strength to strength, moving towards another World Series triumph in Cape Town without yet having conceded a single point.
At the same stadium where they won the World Cup in September, the team that also hold the Commonwealth and season-long World Series crowns, were quite majestic on Saturday as they blasted into the last-four.
Not only have Charlotte Caslick and co racked up 25 tries in their four games over two days so far - winning by an average of just over 39 points a game - but not one team has yet managed to breach their line as their 'points against' column still reads 'zero'.
In their quarter-final on Saturday, they blitzed a plucky but completely outclassed British side 38-0, demonstrating an utter bloody-minded determination not to cough up a single point as they ran in six tries.
Their chief destroyer proved to be Maddison Levi, who went over for a hat-trick as she followed up her heroics of last week in Dubai where she scored 11 all told.
Her sister Teagan Levi also scored late on, while Bienne Terita and world player of the year Caslick helped themselves to a score each in the try fest.
They had earlier produced an arguably even more impressive performance in their last group stage match, soaking up everything a very useful Irish team could throw at them while responding with five tries of their own - two from Terita, and one apiece for Sariah Paki, Madison Ashby and Faith Nathan.
The Australians will next meet USA in Sunday's semis, while New Zealand play Ireland.
It was a very different story for the Australian men's team, also the reigning World Series champions, whose fortunes have plunged since they began their season last month with a famous Hong Kong Sevens win.
After finishing only seventh last week in Dubai, John Manenti's men couldn't even make the quarter-finals in Cape Town as they missed a last-gasp conversion attempt in their decisive group game with the US which meant they ended up being eliminated with a 19-19 draw.
Having lost to GB on Friday, a 31-0 victory over Uganda, featuring doubles from Dietrich Roache and Josh Turner, got the Australians back in with a chance of going through to the quarters if they could beat the Americans.
When Henry Hutchison ploughed over with the last attack of the match to level the scores, the great escape was still on only for Roache to screw his difficult conversion attempt wide of the posts.
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Latest Comments
Australia definitely the game of the weekend. Wallabies by 3.
Go to commentsSmith is playing a different game with the rest of the backs struggling to understand. That's the problem with so called playmakers, if nobody gets what they're doing then it often just leads to a turnover. It gets worse when Borthwick changes one of them, which is why they don't score points at the end. Sometimes having a brilliant playmaker can be problematic if a team cannot be built around them. Once again Borthwick seems lacking in either coaching or selection. I can't help but think it's the latter coupled with pressure to select the big name players.
Lastly, his forward replacements are poor and exposed either lack of depth or selection pressure. Cole hemorrhages scrum penalties whenever he comes on, opponents take advantage of the England scrum and close out the game. Is that the best England can offer?
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