Defensive masterclass powers Aussie women's sevens into Cape Town semis
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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Think we have to accept we have been on the slide for a while now.Still interesting to see the repeated media pieces about the myth of the ABs slipping-I would say slipped past tense.In part don’t we have to give credit for the improvement of other nations particularly Ireland?Isnt that good for the game?Are we beginning to feel the impact of losing the Boks from Super rugby and maybe soon TRC?I would agree we are also ran right now so will be interesting to see how we progress-assuming we do!Isnt that part of sport though to be in improvement mode?Back to the stats though I think the Boks were under 60% leading into 2019?Now with the focus on the RWC does it matter so much what you are doing between tournaments?You just get through your group(remembering the ABs qualified 2nd in 2023)and then you have 3 matches to win the thing.
Go to commentsThe ABs have more than enough back line guys so don’t see issue there. Just the balance at center and feel time for Rieko to sit out.Forwards- balance still not right. Front row ok but miss Codie. But still ok. Locks- you now need to start s a tall timber at middle of lineout- Darry is the right guy. Then move Sititi to 8, move Ardie to 7 and then move Vaai to blindside. He can become the closest to PSdT . Then have proper bench as this is not a demotion but key to dominating last 30 minutes- Patrick, Ofa etc are golden here. Get the balance right between starters and finishers
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