1
Unbeaten Australia claim gold at Oceania Sevens
By AAP
Former Wallaby Lote Tuqiri has described Maddison Levi as a "weapon" after she led Australia to title glory at the Oceania 7s in Brisbane.
Levi scored eight tries across the three-day event as the Australian women's team posted four wins and a draw against a strong NZ Development squad before beating Fiji 26-0 in the Oceania gold medal match on Sunday night.
The former Gold Coast AFLW player scored two tries against Fiji in the decider, with her bursting runs proving too much to handle.
Her hot form is a good sign for Australia heading into the new-look Rugby Sevens season, starting in Dubai in December, and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
"She's a weapon," Tuqiri told Stan.
"Being an ex-winger myself, all she needs is one metre, two metres of space and she's gone.
"She's an amazing athlete. They need her to be fit and healthy going into the season proper, and come Paris next year."
The Australian men were already out of the running to win the Oceania bragging rights after losing to Fiji and New Zealand on Saturday.
But they ensured their tournament finished on a high, thrashing the Cook Islands 47-0 on Sunday to secure seventh spot.
New Zealand were crowned the Oceania men's champions after beating Samoa 24-19 in a final that went to golden point.
The Oceania 7s involved 25 teams from across the Pacific for 66 matches (35 men's and 31 women's) over three days.
For some nations, Olympic qualification was up for grabs.
For other nations like Australia, it was a final tune-up before the season-opening Sevens event in Dubai next month.
The Fiji women's side secured a berth for the Paris Games by thrashing Papua New Guinea 54-0 in the Olympic qualification final.
The Samoa men's side also booked their ticket to Paris with a 31-0 win over Papua New Guinea in the men's Olympic qualification decider.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
3
Let's be real about these All Blacks
4
Why World Cup winner doesn’t blame All Black for leaving New Zealand
5
Latest Comments
No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
Go to comments