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Video - Former Leicester Tigers flyer scores dramatic 60 metre winner in Sydney
By Online Editors
The Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens produced a stunning fightback at the HSBC Sydney 7s to book a Cup Quarter-Final against Fiji tomorrow (Sunday) at Spotless Stadium.
It seemed their aspirations of going back-to-back in Sydney were all but over after a shock defeat to Argentina but a remarkable try in their final game of the day secured a memorable finals berth.
The equation was simple but the task near impossible as Australia faced the prospect of having to beat HSBC Sevens World Series heavyweights South Africa by six points or more in their last game of the Pool stage.
Needing a six point win to keep their Cup hopes alive, Australia were on the front foot early and Jeral Skelton skipped his way through the South African defence to make the score 5-nil. Lewis Holland kept the pressure on as the skipper broke his way through several would-be tacklers to push the margin out to 12 points. The captain had a double soon after as Holland dived over in the corner for a 17-nil lead but South Africa struck back through Justin Geduld to bring the margin back to 10 points on the half-time siren.
Australia left it to the very last play of the game with former Leicester Tiger Nick Malouf stepping away from the South African defence to run 60 metres to score, much to the jubilation of the Spotless Stadium crowd.
The defending Sydney 7s champions will now play the defending Olympic Gold Medallists, Fiji, in Sunday afternoon’s Cup Quarter-Final.
Qantas Australian Men’s Sevens coach Tim Walsh said: “We knew we had to win by six (points) so it was a real moment to embrace and own, and fair play, they (players) came up with the goods. It was an emotional roller coaster but finally it was a good one.
“The boys put in the effort and they worked hard. We got our opportunity and we took it and we’re into tomorrow now which was the first step. Now we have to repeat the way we played today for three games tomorrow.
“Fiji are an amazing attacking team. They will score tries so it’s how you respect the ball when you hold onto it. Defensively you can shut them down but it’s easier said than done,” Walsh said.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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