Australia’s hopes of securing their home rugby sevens tournament were ended by a rampant South Africa side in the semi-finals in Sydney, with the hosts eventually settling for fourth place following defeat to New Zealand in the bronze-medal match.
South Africa went on to claim the title at this leg of the Sevens World Series with an even more dominant display in the final, opening up a 24-0 lead over England before sealing a 29-14 win.
Against Australia, the Blitzboks took full advantage of an indisciplined performance by the hosts to post a comfortable 26-12 win at a hot, sticky and packed out Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Sunday.
Temperatures were cooler at kick-off than they had been earlier in the day, but the mercury remained above 30 degrees and the heat on Australia intensified right from the kick-off as South Africa, the tournament favourites, raced out of the blocks and scored a contender for try of the tournament through Kwagga Smith.
Australia hit back when Tim Anstee stretched his long legs and tore away from the Springboks defence, although his try remained unconverted and South Africa took a 12-5 lead into half-time after Seabelo Senatla touched down.
Australia, ranked eighth in the world, could have made a fist of things after the break, but two yellow cards in quick succession – to Mick Adams, for a dangerous tackle, and then James Stannard, for tripping – undid them. Reduced to five players, they were no match for South Africa, who fully capitalised on their numerical advantage.
Almost immediately after the departure of Adams, Chris Dry extended South Africa’s lead before Smith notched his second of the match, and the result was put to bed.
Simon Kennewell’s late try was nothing more than a consolation for Australia, whose coach Andy Friend was left to lament a sloppy performance. “They’re a quality side – that first try – not many teams can score that,” he said.
“Then it was just discipline – we said at the start of the game we wanted to keep the pressure on them – we gave them a quick tap penalty, the pressure was relieved and they came back at us hard. Discipline hurt us there today.”
The opening to the bronze medal match mirrored that of the semi-final; Australia went behind early on before they were given hope when Lachie Anderson burst through to run in his first try for Australia at the age of 19.
But DJ Forbes, at the other end of his career at 34 years of age, muscled his way over the line on the stroke of half-time to open up a 10-point margin and when Trael Joass scored soon after the restart, the writing was on the wall; Australia eventually went down 29-14.
Earlier on Sunday, Australia had moved into the semi-finals by easily accounting for Wales 26-0 in the quarters. Their run to the last four matches that of Australia’s women, who were beaten by eventual winners Canada on Saturday. The Olympic champions also lost their bronze medal match to New Zealand.
The men’s Olympic champions, Fiji, spurred on by a large contingent in the Sydney crowd, beat the United States 35-12 to claim fifth place.
