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'They were the better team': Aussie 7s star reflects on second consecutive loss
By Finn Morton
The Australian Men’s Sevens team looked like one of the teams to beat after the opening day of this season’s Sydney Sevens at Allianz Stadium.
After starting their campaign on home soil with a tense 12-7 win over rivals Great Britain, the hosts appeared to improve with every match they played in Pool A.
Their final pool performance captured the imagination of the home crowd, as they outclassed Hamilton Sevens champions Argentina with a 19-point win.
The reigning World Series champions were in red-hot form, and Australian rugby fans would’ve dared to dream big ahead of their crunch clash with France in the Cup quarterfinals.
But that’s when disaster struck.
It all fell apart; it’s Sevens, it can all change in a second.
France opened the scoring through Theo Forner, and while the men in gold scored the next two, the Frenchman added another try to his tally – with the conversion levelling the scores.
But, as the siren sounded, the match was ultimately decided by a Thomas Carol penalty goal.
Heartbreak for the hosts who had fallen short of their championship goal, while the French had mirrored the result of their women’s team.
Going into Day Three, Australia had a chance to bounce back against Samoa. But also immediately, it seemed like they weren’t up to the task.
Samoa scored four tries to Australia’s one, as they secured their place in the fifth place final with a 24-10 win.
Australian Sevens star Henry Paterson walked down the North-West tunnel drenched in sweat, having left everything out there on the field.
The try-scorer was quiet; seemingly in a state of shock, as he reflected on his sides second loss in as many games.
“Just wasn’t our day today, full credit to Samoa. They got the better of us, they were the better team,” Paterson told reporters.
“We missed a few areas in our execution, can’t fault the boys’ effort but Samoa were the better team.
“Every single minute of this tournament, up until the end of that France game, our focus was to win the thing. We weren’t here to compete, we’re here to win it,” he added.
“We were building towards playing the footy that can get us there.
“Knowing that we had an opportunity to win the whole thing… that’d be tough, tough to rewatch (the France quarterfinal).”
It’s a tough blow for the men in gold as well, as they’re made to settle for an equal seventh at their end of their home tournament.
Potentially, they could potentially sit around 20 points behind New Zealand on the overall standings.
As Paterson said, every point counts.
“I think that’s just the nature of Sevens, the best teams take the sort of stuff in their stride.
“If it’s a semi-final or if you’re playing off for fifth, every point counts this year so the best teams need to bounce back in the morning.
“That’s what we should have done and we weren’t able to do it today.”
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I have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.
Go to commentsYeah, and ours is waaay bigger than yours. Just as you's get a semi…oh hold on that never happens
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